


the darkness that covers us (will disappear soon)

by kihyuks



Series: jooheon poly bingo [4]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Dreams and Nightmares, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Humor, M/M, Multi, Mystery, Polyamory, Strangers to Lovers, maybe? i try to be funny, not really superpowers because everyone has them, powers, set in england just because i can, side hyungki and showho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-01-06 08:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 40,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21223592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kihyuks/pseuds/kihyuks
Summary: powers are the norm, everyone's born with their own (somewhat) unique power. everyone except lee jooheon. somehow, he's one of the very few people who are completely human, completely powerless. all jooheon has are his rather strange dreams that seem to occur more and more often nowadays.when things start to go awry and people start to lose their powers, jooheon and his friends have to figure out a way to stop it before everyone ends up completely powerless. and maybe, along the way, jooheon falls in love and learns some things about himself he never thought possible.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> for the **dreams/nightmares** square.
> 
> whats Up we here with a new chaptered fic bc i apparently cannot stop myself from starting new things JEKJKS it is all planned out tho n i hvae an approximate word count so this will be completed (in a probably untimely manner, because when do i ever update fast).
> 
> this is just a setup chapter n not a lot rly happens but. there is lots to come still. also i 100% onyl set this in england just bc im lazy n it gives me an excuse to use dumbass slang the whole time (there somehow isnt a single innit in this chapter i am a disappointment i am promising more innits to come)

_Two men walk through the night. The moon hangs low in the sky, casts an eerie glow over the empty campus. The two walk close to each other, huddled together for warmth._

_The taller of the two, blonde hair, slim, a whale tattoo visible on his bare knee, shivers. He wears shorts and a t-shirt, inappropriate for this kind of weather. “It’s so cold out here.” His teeth chatter. “Why didn’t you let me change into something warmer?”_

_The shorter flicks the other’s cheek, rolls his eyes that are almost hidden by his overgrown dark hair, but then he huddles even closer to the other, shares his warmth. “I warned you, Minhyuk,” he says, “but you didn’t want to. You said you’d be fine.”_

_“But Changkyun,” Minhyuk whines, huddling ever so closer (if that’s even possible) to the other man, “you should’ve insisted.”_

_“Would you have listened?”_

_Minhyuk hums, contemplates it, and then settles on a defeated, “No.”_

_“That’s what I thought.”_

_The two continue walking through the dimly lit area. A harsh, icy wind rushes towards them. Minhyuk shivers again. He bites his tongue, doesn’t say a word, holds back the complaint._

_“We’re almost there,” Changkyun reassures. He rubs Minhyuk’s arms, tries to provide him with as much warmth as he can._

_They walk further. Past empty, abandoned buildings. It’s eerie out there in the dark. Changkyun looks around, checks in all the corners, afraid something will get them even though it’s unrealistic. _

_They come to the front door of an old building. Neglected, it seems. Surrounded by other newer buildings, also empty for the time being, this particular building still stands out._

_“I don’t want to go in there. It looks creepy.” Minhyuk sounds whiny. _

_“We already walked all the way here. We might as well.” Changkyun’s tone holds no room for argument. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a set of keys, and begins to try each one on the door. _

_The only sounds he hears are Minhyuk’s chattering teeth, the whistling wind and the jangle of the keys as he tries each of them. _

_It takes a while, longer than expected, to finally find the correct key. When the door unlocks, Changkyun breathes a sigh of relief. “I thought we came out here for nothing.”_

_“I would’ve killed you.” The chattering of Minhyuk’s teeth makes him sound a lot less threatening than he would’ve hoped. _

_Once the two make it inside, Changkyun shuts the door behind them. It’s not actually any warmer inside than out based on the temperature, but the walls of the building shield them from the icy wind outside, which makes it feel a lot warmer than it did before. _

_Minhyuk’s teeth finally stop chattering. “Where is it we’re looking for this stuff?”_

_“I think he said basement,” Changkyun replies. _

_“The basement,” Minhyuk repeats, his voice void of emotion. “You want to go down to the basement.”_

_Changkyun frowns. “Yes? That’s where all the cool stuff is.”_

_“This sounds like the start of a horror movie.” Yet despite his reluctance, Minhyuk still follows Changkyun to the basement door._

_Changkyun peers down the stairs. It’s pitch black down there. “I should’ve brought a torch.”_

_Minhyuk pulls his phone out of his pocket, turns the torch on, and hands it to Changkyun. “Lucky I’m always prepared,” he jokes. _

_Changkyun doesn’t reply to that. Instead, he begins his descent down the old, rickety stairs. _

_Minhyuk follows only a few steps behind and spends the majority of the walk down there fearing for his life. All sorts of things could go wrong. Some strange, rabid animal could jump out of the dark and attack them. Someone could be lurking in the dark, waiting for some dumb university students to come down here before they pounce. The old stairs could collapse in on themselves, and Changkyun and Minhyuk could be trapped down here for eternity, just hoping someone comes and finds them._

_They make it down without a hitch, thankfully. _

_What greets them is dust, more dust, and a whole lot of cobwebs. _

_Minhyuk wrinkles his nose in disgust. “When was the last time someone cleaned down here?”_

_“Last century, I’d assume.” It’s impossible to tell if Changkyun’s being serious or not._

_Many items, caked in dust, of course, are strewn around the room. Some are shiny, expensive looking, seemingly old artefacts. _

_That’s not what Changkyun’s interested in, though. He picks up an old wooden box. There are strange carvings covering the sides. He shakes it, and something rattles around inside. _

_“What do you think’s in here?” Changkyun asks, presenting the small box to Minhyuk. _

_Minhyuk studies it, cautiously takes it from Changkyun’s hands and feels over the outside. It’s mostly smooth, but there are rough spots and he hisses when his finger catches one of them. He holds his finger up in the minimal light they have and then groans. “It cut me.”_

_“I’m pretty sure that’s your doing, not the box’s.” Changkyun takes the box back off Minhyuk to allow him to tend to his (very minor) injury. _

_There’s a small clip holding the box closed. All it would take is Changkyun turning it and the box would unlock. Something prevents him, though. “Do you think something bad will happen if I open this?” he asks. _

_Minhyuk shrugs. “It’s just a box.”_

_So, Changkyun opens the box. Inside sits nothing but a small, rusty key. He pulls it out and squints at it. “Is that it?”_

_“Told you, it’s just a box.”_

* * *

Jooheon wakes up from his dream confused and disorientated. He’s never seen either of the men in the dream before, at least not that he can recall, and he definitely hasn’t heard the name Changkyun before. Minhyuk’s a common name, so it makes sense his brain would supply that for the taller man.

He shakes his head, trying to rid his thoughts of the dream. It’s not uncommon for Jooheon to have strange dreams, but usually they involve people he knows or has at least seen before. He’s almost certain he’s never seen these two before.

He rolls over and checks the time on the clock and realises it’s already 11am and he’d slept in far later than anticipated. It doesn’t matter, not really, as his classes don’t start until tomorrow, but he was meant to be fixing his sleep schedule so waking up for those dreaded early morning classes isn’t as awful. Not a lot he can do about that now, though. He’ll just have to attempt to sleep early tonight.

With some mental effort, Jooheon manages to pull himself out of bed. He leaves his room to enter the kitchen where he finds his flatmate, Kihyun. “G’morning,” Kihyun greets. He’s already dressed and ready for the day, sipping down a cup of tea, much the opposite to Jooheon who’s still wearing his ratty pyjamas and, although he hasn’t had a chance to look in the mirror, he’s sure his hair is all over the place too.

“Good morning.” Jooheon approaches the table and pulls out a chair, ready to sit down, but before he can Kihyun interrupts.

“Can you get me an apple, please?” He has a dangerous glint in his eye, a sly smile on his face, and Jooheon feels compelled to hit him.

Unfortunately, he feels more compelled to get Kihyun the apple as he’d asked.

“I hate you, you know,” Jooheon says, handing over Kihyun’s requested apple and then sitting down.

“Is it my charm or my good looks?” He grins sickly sweet and then bites into his apple, tilting his head to the side as he chews.

“It’s your dumb power. I hate it.”

Kihyun laughs. “I rarely even use it on you. I save it for only the most necessary of times.”

“You mean not moving from the table to get yourself an apple and making me do it is necessary?”

Kihyun hums contemplatively. Then, “Yes, of course.”

Jooheon rolls his eyes. He doesn’t mind, not really, because he knows that Kihyun would never abuse his power (which is illegal, anyway, but Jooheon knows him well enough to know he wouldn’t do it regardless) but he does enjoy using it just for the most menial of things. Usually it’s Hyungwon who ends up as a victim of his persuasion (Jooheon can never tell if it’s Kihyun’s poor attempt at flirting or if annoying Hyungwon is just fun to him) but sometimes Jooheon also can end up being the one to deal with it.

“Some of us,” Jooheon begins, “have no way to get you back. You should feel sympathetic towards those of us with no powers.” He phrases it like a joke, but Kihyun’s guilty expression shows that he knows it’s a sore spot for Jooheon.

“You know it doesn’t matter that you don’t have powers, right?”

Jooheon sighs. He picks at his cuticles as he says, “There are less than ten people in the world that are documented as having no powers. In the whole world, Ki.” Jooheon hates having no powers. He hates that he’s one of the very, very few exceptions that is nothing but a human, a powerless human.

You see, everyone in their world has one specific power that they’re born with. Jooheon doesn’t know much about the history of how it happened, something about scientific modification in the distant past, but now everyone has something that makes them special, that they can do differently. Some powers are more common than others, such as Hyungwon’s time manipulation, which it seems like everyone knows at least five people who are able to manipulate time. Hyungwon is able to jump further in time than the norm, but he’s still stuck with a common power, much to his chagrin. Kihyun’s persuasion power is much more uncommon, but not completely unheard of. It’s one of the ones that seems to most often get abused and taken advantage of, even with all the laws that prevent them from doing much with their powers to prevent that kind of thing.

The laws are enforced well. Despite the fact it’s impossible to remove someone’s power, they can be suspended for periods of time using some technology that Jooheon never bothered to look into the specifics of. It’s not like it makes a difference to him if he has no powers and so they can’t be suspended (not that he’d abuse any powers he did have, but still).

“You don’t need powers,” Kihyun insists. “None of us need them. There’s nothing wrong with you for not having them.”

Jooheon wants to believe him, he does, but it’s something that he finds hard to believe. He used to openly admit to having no powers when he was younger, not seeing a problem with it, but other kids started to bully him for it, tell him there was something wrong with him, and their insults never left him. Now he just tells people he has very minor plant manipulation. He doesn’t, of course, he just happens to have a green thumb and his and Kihyun’s flat is filled with plants, so people take it as the truth. Only his family, Kihyun and Hyungwon are aware of the fact that Jooheon is powerless. He is, however, unable to lie on his official documentation, where it’s stated in bold letters that he doesn’t have a power. He tries not to think about what it says on his documents when he hands it over to apply for jobs and the like, and he especially tries not to think about it when he gets rejected from every job he applies to even though he knows they have no real reason not to hire him.

So, no, he can’t believe Kihyun, even though he so desperately wants to.

“Everyone needs powers,” he states. “It’s an important part of society now.”

Kihyun looks like he wants to say something else, but he holds his tongue. Instead, he changes the subject and says, “Have you heard about Korean society? Hyungwon and I were thinking of joining if you want to too.”

“Is it just Korean people?” Jooheon doesn’t know a lot about the societies at their university, despite being in his final year. He’s been rather sheltered throughout his university career so far, so it would be good for him to make an effort to meet some new people.

“Mostly Korean people, yeah. Hyungwon checked out the signup sheet and saw pretty much only Korean names.”

Jooheon hums, considers it. It’d definitely be a good idea to go, and he needs an excuse to brush up his Korean a bit. He’s become so used to speaking English now that he rarely uses Korean unless he’s speaking to his family. Even with Kihyun and Hyungwon they stick to English since the two of them have lived in England all their lives, even if Jooheon has only been here for a few years. So, with that in mind, he agrees.

“Cool. Meetings are on Wednesdays, so we’ll just pop along then.”

Jooheon nods. He just hopes it’ll be worth it to go.

* * *

Jooheon spends his last day of freedom before university starts up again doing a whole lot of absolutely nothing. But that’s what Sundays, especially the last Sunday before Hell™ begins again, are for, right?

He plays games, scrolls through social media, watches some TV with Kihyun and then makes Kihyun cook dinner for him. Not that Kihyun ever has a problem cooking an extra portion, because he loves cooking, claims it relaxes him, and he gets to listen to Jooheon’s _wonderful_ commentary about anything and everything he can think of as he cooks.

“So we were just sitting there, right?” Jooheon continues his story enthusiastically.

“Barbecue sauce on your tiddies?” Kihyun responds.

Jooheon blinks at him, takes a moment to process Kihyun’s joke, and then snorts loudly. “Unfortunately, no.”

“Unfortunately?” Kihyun asks. Something sizzles in the pan he’s standing over as he moves it around. Whatever he’s cooking, it smells really damn good. “You _want _barbecue sauce on your tiddies?”

“Okay, but in what circumstances does one end up in that situation?”

Kihyun hums contemplatively. “Well, I’d assume drunk. Would someone do that sober?”

“Depends on their personality, I guess.” Jooheon pauses, wondering why he feels like he’s forgotten something. “What was I talking about again?”

Kihyun shrugs. “No clue, honestly. I was focusing more on this food than your story. No offence.”

Jooheon gasps, mocking offence, but really he doesn’t mind. He knows that Kihyun’s mind goes off into its own world as he cooks. Jooheon just talks more to get stuff off his mind than to actually tell Kihyun what he’s thinking when he’s cooking, and he knows Kihyun doesn’t mind him providing some background noise.

Kihyun turns the hob off and starts to dish up their food. It seems to be some sort of stir fry today and Jooheon’s stomach grumbles in anticipation. He sets the two plates down, one in front of Jooheon and one in his own spot, and then takes his seat.

Jooheon takes a bite of the food. It tastes _amazing_. He hums in approval. “This is damn _good_.”

Kihyun smiles, pleased. “Thank you.”

Jooheon devours the food quickly and once he’s finished and appropriately stuffed, he leans back in his chair and practically melts into it. He really is living his best life and making the most of his time.

Then, Kihyun decides to remind him that university is looming and he can’t ignore it forever. “What’s your first class tomorrow?”

Jooheon doesn’t know, actually, so he pulls out his phone to check his timetable.

And he realises that only three of his classes are showing up. He groans loudly. “They didn’t add my animal behaviour class to my timetable.”

“I think your student office can sort that if you go speak to them tomorrow,” Kihyun suggests. “Why are you even taking that anyway? How does animal behaviour relate to computer science?”

“It doesn’t,” Jooheon replies. He makes a mental note to email his student office later, and if he forgets go there in person tomorrow at Kihyun’s suggestion, but emailing is just a lot easier. “I just thought it sounded cool. I love animals, so I thought it’d be fun.”

“What subject is it even under? Biology? Psychology?”

“No idea,” Jooheon admits.

Kihyun laughs and rolls his eyes. “You seem prepared for this year.”

“I’m trying not to think about it,” Jooheon admits. “Are you prepared at all?”

“Nope, but I’m really good at pretending I am.” He stands and takes their dirty plates over to the sink so he can wash them up. “I’m just going to bullshit my way through this year and hope for the best.”

“Now that’s a mood.”

* * *

Jooheon forgets to email his student office about his timetable, because of course he does, and so now here he is, walking all the way to the computer science building. Usually it isn’t an issue that the building is isolated from the rest of campus and as far away from Jooheon’s accommodation as possible because he rarely ever needs to go there (his lectures usually take place in other buildings) but now that he’s walking there in the rain he’s cursing whoever made such a poor planning decision.

He’d tried to convince Kihyun to come with him so he wouldn’t have to walk here alone but he was stuck in classes for most of the day and Hyungwon had given a hard no as soon as he’d seen the weather.

At moments like this Jooheon wishes he’d been blessed with the power to control the weather just to stop it raining where he’s walking, but alas, as much as he wishes for it he still remains one of the powerless few.

When he finally makes it and gets inside he breathes a sigh of relief.

And then groans when he sees the sign saying the office is closed today and to come back tomorrow.

Jooheon pulls out his phone and calls Hyungwon.

“So, what went wrong?” Hyungwon asks.

“It’s closed,” Jooheon whines. “I walked all the way here.” He stares out at the rain that’s still pouring down and sighs. He doesn’t know whether to wait here and hope it eases up a bit or leave now so he has time to dry off before he has to go to class again.

An idea hits him. “Hey, Hyungwon,” he starts.

“Whatever it is, no.”

“Pleeeeeease,” Jooheon whines. “You can stop time so you can freeze the rain while I walk back.”

“I’d also have to walk all the way over there first, and then back,” Hyungwon counters.

“You’d do it for Kihyun.”

Even though he can’t see him, Jooheon can practically hear Hyungwon’s eye roll. “Kihyun has persuasion. He can get anything he wants.”

“Or you’re whipped and secretly in love with him,” Jooheon mutters.

“What did you just say?” Hyungwon’s voice is bordering on annoyance, and Jooheon realises that it’s probably best for him to stop there.

“Nothing. Bye, Hyungwon!” Jooheon hangs up without waiting for a reply and then looks back out at the pouring rain with a sigh.

He’s just going to have to brave it.

* * *

Jooheon does get his timetable sorted the next morning, and his first animal behaviour class is scheduled for Wednesday morning, which is what he’s currently on his way to. He’s left quite early, partially because he woke up earlier than planned and so had nothing to do, but also because he doesn’t know where the room is and he doesn’t want to be running around looking for it last minute.

It turns out the room isn’t hard to find at all and he reaches the room twenty minutes before the lecture is meant to begin, but somehow he’s not even the first one here. A few people are already sitting in the room, so he decides to go in and pick a seat. He chooses one around the middle. Not too close to the front, but also not so far back he’ll have to deal with those people who turn up to a lecture and then chat the whole time. The worst kinds of people, really. Why even turn up if you’re just going to talk? That can be done anywhere, it doesn’t need to be in a lecture room in the middle of a lecture.

As he waits for the lecture to start, he watches all the people who walk into the room because he has nothing else to do.

The lecture seems popular, with people streaming into the room constantly, it seems. Sadly, or maybe not so he’s able to focus better, no one sits near Jooheon. Kihyun says he has an intimidating look and that’s why people seem afraid to approach him, but Jooheon wishes they would more often. He loves talking to new people and getting to know them and making new friends.

More and more people come into the room as the time draws nearer to the start. Then, right after the lecturer enters, two people Jooheon never thought he’d see walk into the room.

Changkyun and Minhyuk, the two men from his dream the other night, are in his animal behaviour class.

He frowns as he looks at the two of them. They take a seat in the front row next to one another and start chatting about something, but Jooheon obviously can’t hear what as he’s too far away.

He’s shocked to see them, to be honest. He was convinced his mind had just made them up, but he guesses it makes sense that they’re at his university, because he’s probably crossed paths with them on campus once or twice and even though he doesn’t remember seeing them, he probably subconsciously remembered their faces and that’s why they appeared in his dream.

Jooheon wonders what their real names are. He knows they can’t be Minhyuk and Changkyun and those names are just ones his mind produced, because it’s definitely not possible for him to actually know their names. He doesn’t even know if they’re actually Korean, or if his mind just decided to pick Korean names for the two of them.

He watches the two of them, feeling a little creepy about doing so, but he’s interested to know more about the two of them that appeared in his unusual dream.

As interesting as the two of them are, the lecturer calls for everyone’s attention and so Jooheon is forced to tear his eyes away to focus on the lecture that’s about to commence.

Throughout the lecture between taking notes, Jooheon steals glances at the two men in the front row. He knows it’s weird, but he can’t help but be intrigued by the two of them. He feels like he wants to learn more about them, get to know them, and maybe get an answer to why they went down into that basement.

Wait, no. It was just a dream, something his mind produced. They didn’t really go down into that basement. He’s acting ridiculous now.

One thing Jooheon does notice is that the two of them seem to keep touching, but it doesn’t even seem intentional. It seems like it comes naturally to the two of them and Jooheon doubts they even realise they’re doing it.

He wonders if maybe they’re dating. It could be possible, he guesses. Not that it really matters. He doesn’t even know the two of them. All he knows about them is their faces as everything else was filled in by his brain during his dream.

The lecture finally comes to an end and Jooheon realises he got a bit too distracted and missed out on taking some notes towards the end of the lecture, but luckily this is only the first one so it’s only the most basic information. He shouldn’t have any trouble catching up, he thinks.

As he packs away his things to get ready to leave, Jooheon watches the two interesting men leave the room hand in hand. That mostly confirms his suspicions that they’re dating, then.

As they exit the room, he can’t help but wonder if he’ll ever get to speak to the two of them and find out their real story.

* * *

Jooheon completely forgets that he agreed to go to Korean society until Kihyun’s knocking at his door and telling him they’re leaving in five minutes. Thankfully, Jooheon hadn’t bothered to change out of his clothes he’d been wearing, so he at least doesn’t have to get changed to look presentable before going. Not that outfits really matter but turning up in a ratty t-shirt and trakkies covered in holes and suspicious looking stains (Jooheon’s clumsy and spills a lot of his food, okay?) wouldn’t be the best first impression.

So, he fixes the mess that is his hair, double checks himself in the mirror and then leaves his room to join Kihyun once he deems himself presentable.

“Ready?” Kihyun asks.

Jooheon nods. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

So, the two walk together to the building where the Korean society meeting is going to be held. As they walk they talk about how their weeks have gone so far and what they’ve been up to.

When they reach the building, Jooheon freezes. A strange sense of deja vu washes over him. He looks around, frowning, wondering why this place looks familiar.

Then, it hits him. It’s the place from his dream. Next to the building they’re heading into is the old, abandoned building that the two men in his dream entered.

Kihyun must notice Jooheon’s frozen state, because he turns back with knitted brows. “What’s wrong? Why do you look so spooked?”

Something about the old building sends a shiver down Jooheon’s spine. He turns away from it, not wanting it in his line of sight any longer. “I had a dream about this place.”

Kihyun knows about Jooheon’s often strange and unusual dreams. They’ve done a lot of research between the two of them to try and find an explanation, but they always come out just as clueless as before.

Jooheon just thinks he for some reason was cursed to always have strange dreams and there is no real explanation to it, even if he wishes he could find one.

“What happened in the dream?” Kihyun asks.

“Two guys went into that building,” Jooheon says, gesturing to said building. “They had a key and there were weird, like, artefact things in the basement. They opened some box and found a key inside. That’s all that happened before I woke up.”

“Strange.” Kihyun puts his hand on Jooheon’s arm and rubs lightly, comforting him. “Will you be okay to go to this? Do you want to go home instead?”

Jooheon smiles but shakes his head. “I’m okay. Thank you though.”

Kihyun grins back. “Come on, then. Let’s go make some new friends.”

* * *

There are about twenty people in the room right now, which is more than Jooheon expected there to be. For some reason, he’d convinced himself that hardly anyone would turn up, but there’s a sizeable number of people. It’s also nothing like Jooheon expected. He expected something more rigid, but really it’s just a place for people to sit around and chat with others.

They’ve already got two new friends sat with them, Hyunwoo and Hoseok, who apparently Hyungwon knows somehow. The five of them have been talking together for a little while, just simple small talk to get to know each other.

Jooheon likes Hyunwoo and Hoseok already. They both seem kind-hearted and he hopes they’ll become closer friends.

The dreaded powers talk hasn’t come yet, but Jooheon knows it’s inevitable. Eventually the topic of powers always comes up, it always does, and Jooheon will have to pretend he has a power as usual. As kind as the two of them seem, trusting people with the fact he has no power is a big thing, and Jooheon’s definitely not at that stage with them yet.

Hyunwoo pulls out his phone, reads something on it and then says to Hoseok, “They’re on their way.”

Jooheon wonders who he’s talking about, but not for long as seconds after Hyunwoo speaks two new people are walking into the room.

It’s the two men from his dream.

Jooheon swallows as they approach the table. He doesn’t know why he feels so nervous - he doesn’t even know them - but he can’t shake the anxiety when he sees them. Maybe it’s just the fact he had a strange dream about them. That’s probably it.

The two of them sit down, and then the blonde one is speaking. “Hey, I’m Minhyuk.”

Jooheon blanches. His name really is Minhyuk? How would Jooheon even know that, though? He thought his mind had just come up with it because it’s a common name.

An elbow in his side brings Jooheon out of his panic. He realises everyone’s looking at him. “Oh, fuck, sorry,” he says in English, then realises the whole conversation has been in Korean so far, so switches back. “I’m Jooheon.”

He waits patiently for the other man to introduce himself. His heart is beating so fast in the anticipation for what he’s going to say. Jooheon’s terrified he’s going to introduce himself as Changkyun, because that definitely can’t be explained away. There’s absolutely no way Jooheon could think of that name and it be a coincidence, because unlike the name Minhyuk, he’s never met anyone with the name Changkyun before.

“The name’s Daniel,” the man says (in English) and Jooheon breathes a sigh of relief.

Jooheon also notices he speaks with an American accent, which is definitely a change from what he’s used to.

“Really? You’re going to use Daniel with people who can actually pronounce your name?” Minhyuk says, eyebrows raised.

Daniel rolls his eyes, and then says, in Korean this time, “Or you can call me Changkyun.”

Jooheon’s heart sinks. That isn’t possible. There’s no way he could’ve known both of their names without having ever remembered seeing either of them before.

The conversation continues while Jooheon experiences his turmoil.

Kihyun must notice that Jooheon’s distracted, because he whispers in his ear, “Are you okay?”

Jooheon nods automatically, then stops himself, sighs, and shakes his head instead. “They’re the two guys from my dream. I knew their names. I don’t know how.”

Kihyun frowns. “You don’t think—?”

Jooheon cuts him off, doesn’t let himself even entertain that idea. “No. I got tested multiple times and they said I don’t have one. It’s not possible.”

Kihyun looks like he wants to say more but holds his tongue. Instead, he turns back to the conversation at hand.

Jooheon takes a deep breath, pushes the thoughts to the back of his mind, and decides that it’s a problem for another time. For now, he’s going to focus on talking to his new (potential) friends.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi im finally updating this again hehe updates will be more frequent from now on!!

_ A campfire burns bright in the middle of a field of dirt and patchy grass. The field looks familiar, yet different in some way. Seven people surround the campfire, huddled up closer together, dressed in long, grey robes. Their hoods are up as the wind gusts past them. Leaves rustle and the fire threatens to extinguish, but just holds on.  _

_ The atmosphere is tense. Something sinister lurks in the shadows. _

_ “The end is near,” one of the men says. He tilts his head back, his hood falling down and revealing messy black hair, and looks up at the night sky. “We only have so much time left.” _

_ No one replies, but frowns adorn many of their faces. Tension rises.  _

_ The man looks back down from the sky and around at each of his fellow members. “What do we do?” _

_ “We wait,” one replies. “We wait and we see what’s to come.” _

_ “If it is time, then it is time. We must accept that,” says another.  _

_ The original man doesn’t seem satisfied with this. He shakes his head in anger. “So we do nothing? We wait for them to destroy us?” _

_ “It has already started. They’re already ruining our kind. Soon we will be no more.” _

_ An uncomfortable silence settles over the group. The words spoken hold the unfortunate truth, the truth that none of them want to accept.  _

_ Another man stands. “We must do something. We can’t let it end like this.” _

_ The fire blinks out of existence. An ominous aura manifests. Now that the light is gone, the shadows that surround them seem to dance and move, almost threateningly so.  _

_ Something lurks. It lingers.  _

_ “The end is near,” the first man repeats. “Our time is over.” _

* * *

Jooheon flicks his lamp on as his panicked breaths escape him. His eyes dart all over the room, checking every corner and crevice. Nothing’s there, because of course nothing’s there. It was just a dream. A strange, creepy dream, but a dream nonetheless. 

Jooheon  _ hates _ dreams like this. The vague, ominous ones that linger in the back of his mind for days following. He wonders how and why his mind even conjures up such things. 

With one last check around his room for any lingering shadows or things that seem out of place, Jooheon tries to physically shake that uncomfortable feeling from his body before he drags himself out of bed.

He goes about the motions of his usual morning routine. Make coffee, eat breakfast, shower, brush teeth, get dressed, double check his bag is packed and ready. But even after doing all of that, the strange feeling remains. He feels jumpy and strange, like at any moment something’s going to jump out at him.

Realistically he knows nothing will happen. It was just a dream, albeit a rather strange dream, but that still doesn’t help him to shake the feeling of being watched.

Jooheon whips around, hand to heart, when he hears, “Good morning,” from behind him.

“What the fuck, Ki. You scared me.”

Kihyun stares blankly at him. “I greet you every morning. Are you even okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine. Totally fine.” Okay, so maybe he’s not fine, but does he really want to admit that he got scared of Kihyun telling him good morning because of a dream? No, he really doesn’t.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Kihyun says.

Jooheon tries really hard, so hard, to restrain himself and force his mouth to keep the words inside, but he can’t. “I had a creepy dream and now I’m convinced something’s going to jump out of the shadows and kill me.” As soon as he finishes speaking, Jooheon musters up his best death glare to throw Kihyun’s way. “Stop using your stupid persuasion on me. I hate it.”

“You would’ve told me eventually, I’m just speeding up the process.”

“No, I wouldn’t’ve.” (He absolutely would have.)

Kihyun rolls his eyes. He picks up Jooheon’s coffee mug and takes a sip from it, only to grimace and shove it back towards Jooheon. “That’s disgusting.”

“If you’d have  _ asked _ before drinking my coffee,” Jooheon says with a sarcastic tone, “I’d have told you it’s cold.”

“As your roommate and best friend I believe I should be allowed to drink your coffee whenever I want to.” As he says this, Kihyun starts boiling the kettle to make another coffee of his own. “Anyway, we’re getting off topic.” He sits back down at the table and looks at Jooheon with his serious face, which only makes Jooheon want to laugh, not take him seriously. “What happened in this dream?”

“Do I  _ really _ have to get into it?”

Kihyun’s raised eyebrow gives him the answer he needs.

Jooheon sighs and recounts his dream. “It was weird, I don’t know. There were these men, seven of them I think, in weird robes with their hoods up. They might’ve been like a cult or something. I don’t even know. I think all the videos I watch on YouTube when I should be sleeping are finally frying my brain. Anyway, yeah, it was all ominous and creepy. They were talking about, like, the end of the world or something? How their time is up? And something about ‘their kind’ being ruined. God, it was so weird. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“That sounds like the start to some shitty horror movie,” is Kihyun’s very helpful first comment once Jooheon finishes explaining his dream. “But, yeah, that does sound weird. I really think we should start turning off the wifi when you should be sleeping for the sake of your health.”

“One, I’m not a child,” Jooheon complains with his arms crossed and a pout on his face, “and two, I have unlimited data. I can’t be stopped from the YouTube spirals at 4am.”

“Not a child, right,” Kihyun mutters. 

The kettle clicks to indicate it’s finished, so Kihyun stands up and grabs two mugs out of the cupboard while saying, “Tea or coffee?”

“Tea, please.”

Soon after a hot mug of tea is placed in front of Jooheon and he smiles at Kihyun in thanks. 

The two of them sit together in a comfortable silence, just enjoying their tea. Then, Kihyun says, “The friends we met in Korean society mentioned to Hyungwon about maybe going over to theirs tonight. You’re invited too if you want to come?”

“Yeah, sure. Just let me know later if we’re going or not.”

“Will do.”

* * *

Jooheon’s eyes slip close once again. He snaps them back open, trying to keep himself focused on the lecture that’s currently happening. He’s just  _ tired _ . Staying focused is proving to be a struggle, which isn’t what should be happening in only his second week of university, but that’s just what he has to deal with at the moment.

Jooheon’s attention is brought back into focus when his lecturer mentions a semester long group project.

“As some of you may know if you checked the module information, there’s a project for this module which lasts the whole semester,” Jooheon’s lecturer says. (He’s already forgotten the man’s name somehow.) “You’ll have to work in groups of three or four, you can decide. You’ll pick a country together and research the animals native to that country, at least five of them but preferably more, and the behaviour of each of these animals. Using what you learn in class, you need to compare the differences in the behaviour of these animals with each other and some of the animals we cover in the lectures. You’ll have to write up a report and then at the end of the semester your group will present your findings in front of the class. I’ll need to know your groups by the end of next week, so find some people to work with during the next week and a half and I’ll send a form around on your Friday lecture next week. All of this information is also on the website if you want to remind yourself of everything. Any questions?”

While people start asking questions about the specifics of the assignment, Jooheon’s mind wanders off into panic mode as he realises he has no one to do the project with. Everyone’s already gone off into little groups, and the few lone people who don’t have groups take one look at Jooheon and then quickly look the other way. It must be that ‘intimidating look’ that Kihyun always tells him about. 

Jooheon scans around the room. Maybe he’ll spot someone he knows or has at least spoken to once before when it hits him that Changkyun and Minhyuk are in this class. Although he can’t really consider them friends - they’d only briefly spoken at Korean society and Jooheon hadn’t been completely invested in the conversation because his mind was stuck on his dream - but he could always see if they wouldn’t mind him working with them. He looks around the room for them, but doesn’t see them anywhere so he frowns. Where could they be? He has no idea, but he’s sure he’ll see them again at Korean society and can ask them the question then. Hopefully they’ll be happy to form a group with Jooheon or he’s probably screwed.

“Class dismissed,” the lecturer says, snapping Jooheon’s attention back to him.

He packs his things away into his bag and leaves the room rather quickly. He’s not in a hurry to get anywhere, he’s got quite a long break before a lab in the afternoon, but that unsettled feeling from his dream just won’t leave him alone. Wherever he walks, he feels jumpy and like he’s being watched, even though he knows he’s not. He probably looks rather strange constantly checking over his shoulder as he walks, but if anyone else had experienced the dream that he did he’s sure they’d be acting the same way he is.

When Jooheon gets back to his flat in one piece he breathes a sigh of relief. Then, he almost jumps out of his skin when he turns around from the door only to be met with Hyungwon standing far too close to him grinning creepily. “Fuck, don’t scare me like that,” Jooheon complains as he tries to recover from being jumped. 

“I literally smiled at you,” Hyungwon replies with a roll of his eyes. “I won’t bother being nice next time.”

Jooheon glares. “Mate, you’re literally standing way too close to me smiling like a creep.”

“I’m being  _ nice, _ ” Hyungwon insists, but the shit-eating grin on his face says otherwise.

“Do one,” Jooheon mutters as he struts past Hyungwon and into  _ his _ flat. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“Waiting for Kihyun.”

“I should’ve known.”

“What’s  _ that _ supposed to mean?” Hyungwon asks with narrowed eyes.

Jooheon gives him a long withering look. “You. Kihyun. Clearly in love.”

Hyungwon splutters and goes red in the face. “I do  _ not _ have feelings for him.”

At that moment, the door clicks shut behind Hyungwon and he visibly pales as Jooheon grins at him.

“You don’t?” Kihyun asks as he approaches Hyungwon.

Hyungwon gulps. “Nope.”

“Hmm, that’s a shame,” Kihyun says, running his hand down Hyungwon’s arm with a smirk. “Guess I’ll have to find a new boyfriend, then, won’t I?”

“Hah, fuck you, Hyungw— Wait, what the fuck?” Jooheon practically yells. “What. The. Fuck.” He can’t tell if his ears are deceiving him or if Kihyun really just implied that Hyungwon is his boyfriend.

Hyungwon smacks Kihyun, but it’s light, like he doesn’t really want to hurt him. “You’re such a prick. I thought we were waiting to see how long it took him to notice?”

“What the fuck,” Jooheon repeats. It feels like the only words his mind can come up with at the moment. The only reasonable reaction to the situation he’s found himself in. “How long? How did I not know this? Oh my god. I mean, I knew you liked each other, but what the fuck. You’re dating?”

“We kinda have been for, like, a year, but thanks for noticing,” Hyungwon answers sarcastically.

“A year. A whole fucking year. I need to sit down.” So, Jooheon does, in the middle of the room on the floor. “I can’t believe this.”

Kihyun and Hyungwon look far too amused for Jooheon’s liking and he wants to wipe the smiles off both of their faces.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He’s not  _ super _ upset they didn’t tell him, only a little, but he’s more surprised they managed to keep it hidden for so long.

“We did,” Kihyun says with a laugh, “you didn’t believe us.”

Jooheon frowns. He tries to think back to any moment when either of them hinted at being in a relationship to him, but he comes up blank. “When was this?”

“My birthday,” Kihyun answers.

“Right, now I see why I don’t remember.”

“You were  _ very _ drunk,” Hyungwon agrees. “We probably could’ve picked a better time.”

“I still can’t believe this. All this time? Wait—” Jooheon pauses and scrunches his nose up. “This doesn’t mean I have to deal with the two of you being gross in front of me now, does it?”

“If we wanted to be gross we would’ve already been gross. I prefer to show my love through bickering,” Hyungwon says proudly. Then, he leans down and pecks Kihyun’s cheek.

The way Kihyun’s whole face lights up in happiness makes Jooheon smile, too. It’s nice to see his friends happy.

“Anything more than cheek kisses and the two of you are being kicked out of this flat,” Jooheon warns with an accusing finger pointed at the two of them.

“Noted, captain,” Kihyun says with a mock salute.

Jooheon rolls his eyes. He finally stands back up from the floor where he’s been sitting for the whole conversation, grabs his discarded bag and announces, “I’m off to take a nap before I have to go back to suffering.”

“Have fun,” Kihyun calls after him as he reaches his door. “Don’t forget we’re going out tonight.”

“I won’t,” Jooheon calls back.

* * *

Jooheon did, in fact, forget they were going out and ended up having to rush to change into something presentable before Kihyun dragged him out of the door complaining about leaving a bad impression on their new friends by being late. And, in revenge, Kihyun had immediately ditched Jooheon once arriving to Hoseok and Hyunwoo’s flat.

So, currently, Jooheon’s sitting in the living room watching Changkyun and Minhyuk yell at each other while playing a game of Mario Kart. They’d greeted Jooheon when he entered, but both were so engrossed in the game that he hasn’t had a chance to talk to them so far, and he doesn’t want to bother them too much, so he’s just sitting back and watching them play. It is quite amusing, to be fair, watching them both play, although the screaming from Minhyuk could probably be toned down a bit.

“Children,” Hyunwoo says as he walks through the door into the living room, “get off the Switch and talk to Jooheon, please.” He says it in a polite tone, but the warning glare of his eyes tells a different story. 

Changkyun and Minhyuk both mutter apologies and pause their game.

“Oh, you really don’t have to,” Jooheon insists. “I don’t mind just watching.”

Minhyuk turns it off anyway and then shuffles closer to Jooheon. “I’d rather get to know you. We didn’t get to talk much at the society meeting.”

Seeing Minhyuk up close makes Jooheon realise just how beautiful the man truly is, but then he rids that thought from his mind as quickly as it came when he remembers that Minhyuk’s (most likely) dating Changkyun and getting a crush on a taken man would just not be ideal for him. 

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jooheon says. “I was kinda distracted.”

“What got you distracted? If you don’t mind me asking.” Minhyuk has his head tilted and he seems genuinely curious.

“Oh, I just had a weird dream. It was stuck on my mind.”

Minhyuk’s eyes light up. “Do you have a dream power too?”

Right, powers, Jooheon’s least favourite topic to talk about. “Ah, no. Plant manipulation,” Jooheon says, repeating the same white lie he always has to resort to. “You have a dream power, though?”

“He has the nice version,” Changkyun pipes up. His accent still shocks Jooheon, so unused to hearing American accents in person. “Mine’s the shitty version.”

“What’s yours?”

“I get nightmares about the future, but only bad things that are going to happen,” Changkyun explains. “Minhyuk gets to have nice dreams about good things. I just wasn’t so lucky.”

“It’s kinda cute, though, that your powers are similar yet opposites,” Jooheon says.

“Aww, see, Changkyunnie, I’m not the only one who thinks we’re couple goals.”

Changkyun rolls his eyes, but there’s a fondness to it. “That’s not really what he said, love.”

Minhyuk pouts at Changkyun, then turns to look at Jooheon. “He’s mean.”

Jooheon laughs because it’s just so ridiculous and Minhyuk ends up grinning at him.

Then, Jooheon suddenly remembers the project for their animal behaviour class. “Oh, by the way, we got set a project in animal behaviour class today.”

“We did? Dammit, I told you we should’ve gone,” Minhyuk complains to Changkyun. Then, with a frown, he says to Jooheon, “Wait, we’re in that class together?”

“Yeah, I always see you go sit at the front.”

“We’ll sit together next time,” Minhyuk promises. “What’s the project about?”

“Pick a country and do a report and presentation on five animals from that country and their behaviour and stuff. We have to work in groups of three or four,” Jooheon explains. He prays that they’ll offer to work with him without him having to outright ask them, his fear of rejection too strong for that.

“Oh, we can work together then,” Changkyun says. “Unless you already found someone?”

Jooheon internally celebrates, but tries to keep it cool on the outside. Not only does he now actually have a group to work on the project with, but he’s also curious about Changkyun and Minhyuk and really wants to get to know them better, and so doing the project with them for a whole semester seems like the best way for him to do that. “I’d love to work with you guys. I was hoping you’d ask, actually.”

“That’s sorted then,” Minhyuk says with a grin. “But for now I don’t even want to think about university. I’m sick of it already and we’ve only made it through a week and a half.”

“You’ve been to, like, half of your lectures,” Changkyun points out. “You’re a terrible student.”

Minhyuk gasps. “How dare you. I’m better than, like, at least half of the students we know because I actually do turn up occasionally.”

“To be fair,” Jooheon says, “I know so many people who just never bother to go to a single lecture.”

“Thank you, Jooheonie, I knew I could count on you.”

The smile that Minhyuk gives him makes Jooheon’s heart jump in a way that he really wishes it didn’t. No feelings for already taken people, he reminds himself. That’d just be setting himself up for suffering. But Minhyuk’s just so  _ cute _ . And so is Changkyun. The thought of dating both of them briefly crosses his mind, but Jooheon quells that thought right after. He’s barely just met the two of them, even if he is one to develop crushes rather quickly, and there’s no knowing if they’d even be interested in polyamory. So, Jooheon reminds himself that schoolgirl crushes on the men he’s just met are off limits and he just has to focus on befriending them and completing their project.

He can do that.

* * *

“It hurts so much,” Changkyun complains, clutching his leg to his chest as he lies on the kitchen floor. 

“Do you want me to kiss it better?” Minhyuk offers with a grin. 

Kihyun scrunches his nose up in disgust. “He hurt his foot and you’re offering to kiss it better? You’re gross.”

“I’m not  _ actually _ going to kiss it better,” Minhyuk says, exasperated, “I’m just fulfilling my boyfriendly duties.”

“Is Hoseok going to be back soon?” Changkyun asks with a pout. “I need him to heal me.”

As if on cue, the front door opens and Hoseok and Hyungwon enter the kitchen with bags of food and smiles on their faces. Then, Hoseok spots Changkyun lying on the floor and frowns at him. “What happened?”

“Changkyun went to kick a ball and instead kicked the table leg,” Kihyun explains, sounding rather amused.

“If you hurt your foot why are you holding your leg?” Hyungwon questions.

“It hurts too much to touch my foot.”

Hoseok sets down the food onto the kitchen table and kneels down on the floor beside Changkyun. Ever so carefully, he touches his hand to Changkyun’s socked foot and shuts his eyes. As he does whatever it is that he has to do to use his healing powers, Jooheon thinks about how maybe he is blessed to not have a power, especially not a healing power, so he isn’t forced to touch people’s feet because  _ gross.  _

A minute or so passes by before Hoseok opens his eyes once again. Instead of looking pleased, though, he’s frowning. “My powers are all funky. I’m not sure how much that worked.”

Changkyun cautiously moves his foot around a bit and wiggles his toes, which all seems to go fine, but when he tries to stand and put weight onto his foot he lets out a yelp of pain and would’ve fallen back to the floor if it weren’t for Minhyuk being ready to catch him. He gently sets Changkyun down on the floor and then looks to Hoseok concerned. “Are you losing your power or something?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Hoseok answers, but he doesn’t sound so sure of himself. “It just feels  _ weird _ to use it, like something’s wrong. I don’t know how to explain.”

“Maybe you’re just having an off day?” Jooheon suggests. He’s not really sure whether everyone experiences those or not, but Kihyun’s mentioned to him a few times about how his power doesn’t work as well if he’s tired or stressed.

“Hm, maybe. I don’t know.” Hoseok sounds really stressed out and Jooheon feels bad for him. “I’m sorry I can’t help much, Kyun.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have a boyfriend for a reason,” he says with a grin. 

Minhyuk gasps. “Using me to carry you around? How dare you.”

“You love me,” Changkyun counters. “You don’t really mind.”

Minhyuk looks like he’s going to argue, but decides against it. “I told you to stop exposing how whipped I am in front of our friends.”

“He doesn’t even need to expose it, you do it yourself,” Kihyun points out.

Minhyuk wears a pout on his face for the rest of the night.

* * *

“You’re buying me coffee since you dragged me out here so early in the morning.”

Jooheon gives Hyungwon a blank stare. “It’s 1pm.”

“Yeah, early morning,” Hyungwon repeats. “Coffee, please.” He wears a sweet grin on his face, the epitome of polite, but Jooheon knows that it’s all fake, all a ruse, and so he really wishes he could wipe it right off Hyungwon’s face. 

But he can’t, because they’re in public. And, well, Jooheon’s not really going to do anything to Hyungwon. The temptation is still there, though. 

So, Jooheon does as Hyungwon asks and buys him the coffee as well as one for himself. He’ll just make sure that next time Hyungwon buys him something and then they’re even. (Not that Jooheon really minds. He’s happy to spend money on his friends here and there without anything in return.)

“There you go, Your Majesty,” Jooheon says as he hands over Hyungwon’s cup of coffee. 

“Cheers, peasant.”

Jooheon rolls his eyes. “Do I only live to serve you?”

“Basically, yeah,” Hyungwon says with a shit-eating grin. He takes a sip of his coffee and hums in delight. “It’s good.”

“It better be, it was like five quid. Why are the prices here so ridiculous?” Jooheon complains.

“I mean, it’s the only place on campus to get decent coffee so they hike up the prices because they know students need their coffee.”

“Alright, Mr Reasonable,” Jooheon grumbles. “I didn’t expect an actual answer.”

Hyungwon rolls his eyes as he takes another sip of his coffee.

Jooheon finally decides to try his own coffee. He picked something random off the menu in a panic when the server asked him what he wanted and he realised he’d only memorised Hyungwon’s order and not prepared his own, so he has no idea what drink he even has. He takes a cautious sip and is shocked to find that it’s actually really tasty. “Damn, you were right, the drinks here are good. Expensive, but good.”

“Sounds like me,” Hyungwon jokes.

Jooheon glares. “Your jokes are terrible.”

“Nah, they’re amazing. You’re just jealous because I’m a comedy genius and you’re not.”

“You wish.”

Out of the corner of Jooheon’s eye he sees someone walking past their table, only to then trip and their coffee to begin its descent towards the ground. The distinct click of Hyungwon’s finger’s sounds and Jooheon expects to see the coffee safely back in the girl’s hands the next second, but instead it keeps falling and spills all over the floor. A staff member rushes over to help, mop in hand.

Jooheon turns to Hyungwon with a frown. “Why didn’t you stop it?”

“I tried,” Hyungwon says meekly, “it didn’t work.”

“Your power?” Jooheon asks for confirmation, because there’s no way that Hyungwon means his power didn’t work. Hyungwon’s  _ never _ had trouble with pausing time. Even when he’s been sick or tired or any other bad state, he’s still managed to use his power, so there’s no possible way that Hyungwon could mean that his power didn’t work.

“Yeah,” Hyungwon confirms. “It didn’t work.”

Jooheon’s heart sinks. A chill runs down his spine. He might not have a power of his own, but Jooheon still knows that this can’t be a good sign. First Hoseok’s power didn’t work on Changkyun and now Hyungwon’s power hasn’t worked? It could be a coincidence, but Jooheon’s gut tells him that isn’t the case. Something bigger must be going on here and Jooheon’s afraid of what it might mean for their friends, for society, if people start losing their powers.

“I’m scared, Jooheon,” Hyungwon says quietly. He’s sunk down in his chair and looking as small as possible.

Jooheon wishes he could reassure Hyungwon, tell him that it’s nothing and it was just a one time thing, but Jooheon isn’t so sure that’d be the truth, so he can’t say that.

Instead, all he can come up with is, “I’m scared, too.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im pretty sure i edited this. cannot confirm that tho bc it wasnt in my edited folder but,, i vaguely rmbr editing so lets all hope i did n if you see typos im sorry n pls lmk LOL

_ A younger, blonde-haired Changkyun taps nervously on his leg as he sits beside Minhyuk (except with black hair) in the back of a taxi. He chews on his lower lip, and every now and then he’ll open his mouth like he wants to say something, but ultimately closes it without producing a sound. _

_ Minhyuk, on the other hand, looks sad. His eyes are glossy with tears and a frown sits permanently on his face as he looks out of the window. He has a bag sitting on the floor between his feet and a suitcase peeks over the seats in the boot of the taxi.  _

_ Not a word is spoken between the two of them as the car drives to its destination, the airport, and when they finally arrive, Minhyuk sighs. “I guess this is it.” _

_ “I guess it is,” Changkyun says solemnly.  _

_ They stand together in the middle of the airport terminal, people walking past them on the way to get their flights, but neither of them seem to want to move. A reluctance holds them both in place.  _

_ Minhyuk pulls out his phone and sighs again. “I should probably go check in. I don’t have much time before my flight.” _

_ “Yeah, I guess,” Changkyun agrees. He doesn’t look happy about it, much the opposite. Where he’d seemed nervous in the taxi, now he just looks downright devastated. Quietly, he mutters, “I really don’t want you to go.” _

_ “I don’t want to go either.” Minhyuk diverts his eyes away from Changkyun’s as a tear drips down his cheek. “I’m going to miss you so much.” _

_ Changkyun pulls Minhyuk in for a hug, practically crushing him in his arms. “We’ll see each other again soon.” _

_ Minhyuk laughs bitterly. “You know we won’t. We basically live on the opposite sides of the world to each other.” _

_ “No, we will,” Changkyun insists. “I’ll save up so I can come to Korea and visit you. I’ll get another job or something.” _

_ Minhyuk pulls back from the hug to look deep into Changkyun’s eyes. “Kyun-ah, you can’t. You need to focus on school.” _

_ “School doesn’t matter if I can see you.” _

_ “How will we go to university together if you don’t do well in school, huh?” Minhyuk elbows Changkyun lightly with a sly smirk. _

_ “You promise?” Changkyun’s eyes shine with hope. _

_ “I promise. Wherever you want to go, we’ll go. Anywhere in the world.” _

_ “Anywhere?” _

_ Minhyuk nods.  _

_ “Then I want to go to England,” Changkyun decides. “That’s where we’ll go to university.” _

_ Minhyuk frowns slightly like he’s confused, but he agrees with Changkyun on his choice. “Then that’s where we’ll go.” _

_ Changkyun smiles wide, pleased with the promise of the future that he’ll get to spend with Minhyuk, but then his smile falls when the surroundings and reality comes back into his focus. “Please don’t go,” he mumbles, hugging Minhyuk once again. _

_ “I have to,” Minhyuk says sadly. “But we’ll text and call until we can see each other again, okay? Like we’ve always done.” _

_ “Yeah.” _

_ Minhyuk pulls back from the hug and gives Changkyun one last smile. “I’ll miss you so much, okay?” _

_ “I’ll miss you too.” The tears flow freely down Changkyun’s face as he speaks. “Text me when you’re home safely.” _

_ Minhyuk’s crying too, his eyes rimmed in red and shining with his unshed tears. “I will, I promise. Bye, Kyunnie.” _

_ “Bye, Min.” _

_ Minhyuk grabs his suitcase and leaves towards the check-in desk as Changkyun watches after him as he weeps. _

_ Then, Minhyuk pauses and turns back around. He abandons his suitcase to run up to Changkyun and does the last thing Changkyun expects, plant a kiss on his lips.  _

_ Changkyun’s mouth hangs open as Minhyuk pulls away, and then Minhyuk’s eyes widen in fear. “Fuck, I should’ve asked. I’m sorry.” _

_ Changkyun ignores what Minhyuk said to ask, “What was that for?” _

_ Sheepishly, Minhyuk replies, “Because I really like you and I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to tell you.” _

_ “I— You— Oh my god.” Changkyun drops to the floor in a crouch, overwhelmed. _

_ Minhyuk kneels down after him, fear in his eyes. “Are you okay?” _

_ Changkyun doesn’t reply, just stares wide-eyed at the floor in front of him.  _

_ “Fuck, I’m sorry. I fucked it up, didn’t I?” _

_ Minhyuk’s apology gets Changkyun to finally break his staring contest with the floor and look up at Minhyuk’s face. “Will you be my boyfriend?” _

_ This time it’s Minhyuk’s turn to go into shock. He blubbers for a while, unable to form any words, before he finally manages a ‘Yes,’ and kisses Changkyun once again. _

* * *

When Jooheon wakes up the only thing he can do is sigh. Dreaming about Minhyuk and Changkyun, really? He’s definitely developing crushes on the two of them even if he wants to deny it to himself and even if he’s been telling himself that it’s a bad idea since he met them. But, well, a tiny crush won’t do him any harm. He can deal with that. 

His mind confuses him yet again when it comes to dreams with Changkyun and Minhyuk (he still wonders how he even knew their names) with seeing them being younger and having switched hair colours, apparently. He’s obviously never seen a photo of either of them when they were younger, only having known them for a short time, and he also doesn’t really understand why his mind even came up with such a strange situation, anyway.

Really, why would Jooheon be dreaming about how Changkyun and Minhyuk got together? At least some of the details are accurate, such as them talking about going to university together in England and Minhyuk previously living in Korea, but the whole thing is just  _ strange _ . He distantly considers asking the two of them about the actual story of how they got together, but as quickly as the thought comes it’s gone again as Jooheon realises, as he looks through his window (he forgot to close the curtains  _ again _ ) and sees that it’s raining. “The weather here sucks,” he grumbles to himself.

The temptation to stay in his warm, cosy bed instead of getting up and going to lectures is strong, but he’s got his animal behaviour class today and nothing will get him to miss that. (It has nothing to do with the fact it means he gets to see Changkyun and Minhyuk, of course).

A clatter from the kitchen followed by someone (Kihyun, unless someone has broken into their flat) yelling ‘ _ Bollocks _ ’ is what finally gets Jooheon to drag himself out of bed. He makes it to his door before he turns to look back at his bed longingly. 

But, Jooheon’s a strong man who can get himself out of bed when he needs to, so he pulls his eyes away from his bed and makes his way into the kitchen.

A shattered mug in the middle of the floor is the first thing he spots and then a distraught looking Kihyun kneeling behind it is the next. 

“What happened here?” Jooheon asks as he takes in the scene.

“I’m having the crappiest day ever,” Kihyun says solemnly. By the looks of it, he really is. Breaking a mug is practically a sin. To ruin the vessel for the most sacred of liquids, tea, requires only the worst of all punishments.

A few seconds pass where Jooheon doesn’t know what to do or say. Then, Kihyun, in that sickly sweet voice of his that Jooheon hates oh so much, asks, “Can you clean my mess up for me?”

Except, there’s no compulsion to do it. Unlike usual when Kihyun uses his persuasion on him, Jooheon just feels nothing. 

“Did you, like, forget to use your power or something?” Jooheon asks, head tilted, confused as to why Kihyun didn’t do it. Well, sure, Kihyun knows that if he asks nicely Jooheon would do it anyway because he likes to help out his friends even if it’s with simple tasks, but usually he uses his persuasion anyway. Jooheon thinks it’s mostly because he gets a kick out of being able to have power over someone else, but that’s besides the point.

Kihyun’s staring at Jooheon blankly. “I did.”

“No, you didn’t,” Jooheon argues. “If you did I wouldn’t still be standing here, would I?”

“But I did use it,” Kihyun insists.

Jooheon’s mind flashes back to Hoseok not being able to heal Changkyun and then to Hyungwon’s powers failing in the cafe and his heart sinks to the floor. He’d forgotten all about how scared he’d felt when Hyungwon’s power didn’t work because having no powers of his own it just stopped being on his mind, but now all that fear and terror comes rushing back to him. “Why are everyone’s powers failing?” he asks in a small voice.

Kihyun, who clearly isn’t caught up on what’s been happening, frowns at Jooheon. “What do you mean?”

So, Jooheon explains everything to him and when he’s finished Kihyun wears a look of dread that matches what Jooheon feels in his heart. “We can’t be losing our powers, can we?”

“I don’t know.” And Jooheon really doesn’t. This isn’t his area of expertise, clearly, and he’s never heard of anyone having lost powers before, but especially not a whole group of people (and maybe even more that they don’t know about). “Have you ever heard of this happening before?” he asks, knowing that Kihyun has more knowledge about powers than Jooheon does as he’d actually bothered to listen in history classes unlike Jooheon. 

“No, never. I didn’t think it was even possible.”

“Well, at least I won’t be left out soon,” Jooheon attempts to joke, but it falls flat. “Sorry, probably not appropriate.”

Kihyun finally stands up from where he’s been crouching on the ground by his broken mug and takes a seat at the kitchen table.

Jooheon joins him, worried for his friend. He can’t remember a time he’s ever seen Kihyun looking so speechless and scared before. He’s always been the strong one, the one who can easily put up a front and hide his emotions to make sure everyone else is fine first, so this is a different side of Kihyun that Jooheon isn’t used to seeing and it absolutely terrifies him. 

“What do we do?” Kihyun asks.

Again, Jooheon doesn’t know, but it seems like it’s his turn to take the lead and figure out a plan for once. “Let’s talk to the others - Hyungwon, Changkyun, Minhyuk, Hoseok and Hyunwoo - all of them. We can have them over here or something and we’ll talk together about whether anyone’s experienced powers failing or not, then we can make a plan.” With his idea said, Jooheon can’t help but smile to himself a little. He’s never one to come up with the ideas of what to do, not when he’s so indecisive and always has to ask someone else to make his decisions for him, so he’s proud that he managed to figure something out himself, even if the situation isn’t ideal.

“Okay, yeah, let’s do that,” Kihyun agrees.

“We’ll get it sorted, yeah?” 

And even though Jooheon says it, trying to be the reassuring friend, he doesn’t know how much he believes it himself. 

* * *

Minhyuk and Changkyun are waiting for Jooheon outside their lecture hall. They both wave and smile as they see Jooheon approaching and he feels his heart burst with happiness. When they’d said they’ll sit with him now that they know they all share a class together he didn’t expect them to  _ actually _ wait for him outside the lecture hall so they could all find seats together. 

“Hey,” Minhyuk greets as Jooheon gets within earshot of them, “ready to go in?”

“Ready as I could ever be for a lecture, yeah.”

Minhyuk laughs and then the three of them make their way into the room together. There are some free seats in one of the middle rows so they sit down there with Jooheon in the middle of the two of them. 

He panics that he’s separating them and says, “Oh, shit, should I move and let you two sit next to each other?”

“Nah, you’re good. I like sitting next to you,” Minhyuk says. “And anyway, Changkyun’s nasty I’m glad I don’t have to sit next to him.”

Changkyun barely even reacts, just blinks at Minhyuk while Minhyuk grins cheekily at him. “You’re the worst, you know that?”

“You have bad taste in men, then.”

Jooheon tries to stifle his laugh, but fails. 

Minhyuk grins at Jooheon and then leans in to whisper conspiratorially, “He doesn’t really. I’m clearly the best.”

“Mm, I’m sure.”

Someone behind the three of them mentions the group project they have to do and it reminds Jooheon that they should probably start thinking about theirs. “Oh, by the way, do either of you have any ideas about what we should do for our project?”

“I mean, we’re all Korean so we should probably pick Korea, right?” Changkyun says. “Minhyuk lived there for so long I’m sure he knows  _ some  _ stuff about the animals there.”

“I did too,” Jooheon says, “but I don’t know shit.”

Changkyun raises his brows. “You lived in Korea? Why did I think you were born here?”

“Nope, I’m an exchange student but I haven’t been back in years because it’s expensive. I just stay with Kihyun’s family, usually.”

“But your accent? The slang?” Minhyuk points out. 

Jooheon can’t help but laugh because he gets that one a lot. “I met Kihyun online years ago and that’s how I learnt English, so that’s all his fault.”

“Oh, cool, we met online too,” Minhyuk says. 

“Did you start dating online or did that happen later?” Jooheon asks, curious.

“After we’d met.”

There’s no time for Minhyuk to elaborate further as the lecturer calls for everyone’s attention so he can begin teaching and their conversation comes to a stop. Although Jooheon wants to know more about the story of Minhyuk and Changkyun meeting, he has to focus on the lecturer for now. If he remembers he’ll ask later, but he knows he’ll probably forget. 

With a sigh, Jooheon slumps down in his seat and prepares himself for the lecture ahead. 

* * *

When their lecture ends ( _ finally _ ) Jooheon, Changkyun and Minhyuk decide to head to the library and get started on some research for their project. It’s not like they have to  _ actually  _ get started already, they haven’t even officially confirmed to the lecturer that they’ll be working together as he hasn’t handed out the list for everyone yet, but it’s good to get a head start, especially if they’ve got other things to be focusing on (such as what on earth could possibly be going on with everyone’s powers).

Except, well, trying to research together with friends never really ends up the best as they manage a solid ten minutes of work before they all get distracted and start chatting about anything and everything.

Changkyun, though, for some reason seems to be acting really strange. It’s not like he’s not usually quite quiet, especially with Minhyuk glued to his side at all times who might be the most talkative person Jooheon’s ever met, but he seems especially quiet and down today and it worries Jooheon.

So, when Minhyuk disappears off to buy the three of them some pick-me-up coffees, Jooheon decides to ask Changkyun what’s going on. “Hey, Changkyun, you okay?”

Changkyun hums in reply, but then he cuts himself off and shakes his head. “Not really, to be honest.”

“What’s up?”

“I had a really bad nightmare last night,” Changkyun says solemnly, his eyes averted to look at the floor instead of up at Jooheon. “I’m scared to tell Minhyuk, though, even though he knows something’s up.”

“Why don’t you want to tell him?”

“Because it was about him.”

A sinking feeling settles into Jooheon’s stomach. He doesn’t know much about Changkyun’s powers, but what he does know is that the nightmares he has never predict anything good. “Is it possible it won’t come true?”

“I’ve never had one not come true.” Changkyun finally looks up at Jooheon to smile sadly at him. “I don’t know what to do. I’m scared.”

“What happened to him in the nightmare?” Jooheon decides to ask, his curiosity getting the best of him, but also because he’ll be able to comfort Changkyun better if he knows the actual context of why Changkyun’s so scared.

“It was weirdly dark and I don’t know where we were, but all of us were there. You, me, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Hoseok, Hyunwoo. All of us. And, I don’t know, Minhyuk was lying on the floor further ahead of us and he was bleeding but we couldn’t get to him for some reason. He kept screaming my name and your name and he was crying but we couldn’t get to him.  _ Fuck _ .” Changkyun wipes his eyes with the heels of his hands as tears start to fall. “I’m so scared, Jooheon.”

Jooheon’s heart clenches. Seeing Changkyun cry is something he never wants to experience again, he decides. But Jooheon has no idea what he can say. Sure, he could try and tell Changkyun that it’ll be fine and there’s always a chance it won’t happen, but it seems fruitless. So, instead, Jooheon shuffles closer to Changkyun on the sofa they’re sharing and puts an arm around his shoulders to pull him into a side hug. It’s awkward, but Changkyun buries his face into Jooheon’s chest anyway as he sniffles. 

“Thank you,” he mumbles quietly, but sincerely. “I’m really glad I met you, you know?”

“I’m glad I met you, too,” Jooheon whispers in reply, feeling like if he speaks any louder it’ll break the moment. 

And in the middle of the library the two of them stay like that, Changkyun safely in Jooheon’s arms, while they wait for Minhyuk to return.

When Minhyuk does return and he sees Changkyun’s red-rimmed eyes he’s quick to pepper Changkyun’s face with kisses.

And the way Changkyun’s face lights up in happiness, his worries forgotten, brings a smile to Jooheon’s face.

* * *

Changkyun and Minhyuk head home not much later, project forgotten about (not that Jooheon minds because he’s not in the mood to do any more productive things today, anyway), with Minhyuk promising Changkyun ice cream to make him feel better. They invite Jooheon along with them, but he figures they probably want some alone time together (even if they both insist otherwise when he says so, telling him that they see each other enough and want to spend time with Jooheon). Instead, Jooheon decides to head back to his flat so he can do what he does best - procrastinate and waste the rest of his day doing nothing at all.

Except, as he’s walking home, Jooheon spots Hoseok and Hyunwoo sitting together in one of the cafes on campus and decides to pop in and say hi to the two of them. Despite now being friends with the two of them, Jooheon hasn’t had much of a chance to get to talk to them outside of a group setting and he figures since he has the opportunity to get to know them better he might as well take it. 

“Hey, guys,” he says as he approaches their table. “Mind if I join you?”

“Sure, go ahead,” Hoseok says with a warm smile. “You been up to anything fun today?”

“I had a lecture then went to the library with Minhyuk and Changkyun to work on our project but, well, you know. We didn’t really get much done,” Jooheon answers. 

“Sounds about right. What brings you to the cafe, then?”

“Oh, I was walking home and spotted you both through the window and I thought I’d come talk to you. It sucks that we haven’t really spoken to each other much.”

Hyunwoo and Hoseok both hum an agreement, and Jooheon’s glad to know he’s not the only one thinking it. After only having two real friends, Kihyun and Hyungwon, throughout most of his time at university, he wants to make the effort now that he’s found a good group of friends to be a part of as they really feel like the people he could be friends with for the rest of his life. Maybe he’s getting ahead of himself a bit too much by thinking so, but he’s just clicked so well with all of them so far despite it not being that long of a time and he really feels like he can be himself around everyone. So, it’s important to him that he makes the effort to get to know everyone individually as well as in a group setting. 

“How about you come over one night this week for some food?” Hyunwoo suggests. “We can drink beer and watch shitty movies if you want, too, or play games.”

“That sounds amazing,” Jooheon says, already anticipating it. “Can we get fish and chips, though? Kihyun hates fish so we never end up getting it and I  _ miss _ it,” he whines.

“Are you  _ sure _ you’re an international student?” Hoseok asks with a raised eyebrow. “Because I’ve never heard of anyone actually wanting fish and chips unless they were brought up on it.”

Jooheon huffs a laugh. “When I moved here Kihyun insisted that I learn about ‘true British culture’, whatever the fuck that is, and introduced me to fish and chips first. So, like, it’s got that whole nostalgic feeling, too, being my first meal here and all that.”

“Makes sense. I remember when I moved here Hoseok insisted that I try a chip butty and now I have a weird thing for eating them even though they’re not even that great,” Hyunwoo says.

A shocked gasp sounds from Hoseok. “How dare you insult British cuisine like that.”

“To be fair,” Jooheon starts, “putting weird things between slices of bread and claiming it’s cuisine can’t really be defended.”

Hoseok opens his mouth like he’s going to say more, but then shuts it and sighs. “You’re right. Korean food is way better, anyway. I’m glad my mum brought me up eating it and taught me how to cook it myself. I’d be living a sad life otherwise.”

“Now I want Korean food, too,” Jooheon whines. Then, he remembers his conversation with Changkyun previously and decides to ask whether Hyunwoo and Hoseok have any advice about what to do about Changkyun’s nightmares as they've known Changkyun a lot longer than Jooheon has. “Oh, hey, by the way, what do you know about Changkyun’s nightmares?”

“They’re scarily accurate,” Hyunwoo replies. “He doesn’t have them often, but whenever he does he’s freaked out until it ends up happening.”

“Yeah, it’s awful to see,” Hoseok agrees. “Why? Did he have another one?”

“About Minhyuk, he said. He seems really scared and I’m worried for both of them.”

Hoseok frowns. “I don’t think he’s ever had a nightmare where something happened to Minhyuk as long as I’ve known him. That’s really worrying.”

“Mm, it is. I don’t really know what to do.”

“Just try distract him is what I’ve found works best,” Hyunwoo suggests with a smile. “It’s nice of you to care and want to help him.”

“Of course,” Jooheon says, “he’s my friend, all of you are. I only want to see you all happy.”

* * *

“Right, so, who’s losing their powers?” Kihyun asks.

The seven of them in their friend group are sitting around Kihyun and Jooheon’s kitchen table (it’s a tight squeeze and they only have six chairs so Changkyun’s having to sit on Minhyuk’s lap for all of them to fit) finally discussing what they know about the powers situation so far. 

“You, me and Hoseok as far as I know of,” Hyungwon answers. “Mine are working but on and off.”

“Same for me,” Hyunwoo adds. “I can still move things but I keep dropping them.” 

Right, Hyunwoo’s telekinesis. Jooheon didn’t figure out what Hyunwoo’s power is until he saw a bagel go flying across the room and straight into Hyunwoo’s mouth. 

“Changkyun? Minhyuk? What about you two?” Kihyun asks.

“Same as usual,” Minhyuk replies, “but dream powers work weirdly. Mine and Changkyun’s are pretty similar in that we only get actual prediction dreams very occasionally, so I haven’t noticed a difference.”

“Mm, I remember hearing that dream powers are unique,” Kihyun says. “So, regular powers are acting weird, dream powers seem to be fine, then.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, Kihyun’s eyes widen in fear as he realises the mistake he’s made.

Jooheon panics and prays no one will say anything or pick up on it. It’d be easy enough for them to assume that Kihyun already knew about Jooheon’s power failing and forgot to report it to the whole group. That doesn’t sound completely unreasonable.

But, Jooheon isn’t so lucky.

“What about you, Jooheon?” Minhyuk asks.

There are two options for Jooheon right now. He can continue to pretend that he has a power and claim it’s playing up the same way the powers of everyone without a dream power are doing which is the safe option and the one he’s first drawn to, or he can finally admit to his friends about the truth about his powers.

The temptation to continue with his lie is strong, so,  _ so _ strong. But, these are his friends and people he trusts a lot despite only knowing them for a short time, and if anyone deserves to know, it’s his friends.

He knows them and he knows that he won’t be judged, he’ll be accepted and treated just the same as he always is. But still, that fear because of the judgement he’s received in the past still lingers.

Jooheon looks to Kihyun who gives him a reassuring smile and a subtle nod and that’s all the encouragement Jooheon needs to finally tell the truth. 

“I, uh, actually don’t have a power,” Jooheon admits in a small voice. “I got bullied for it growing up so I’ve pretended to have one for years, but, yeah. I’m powerless.” While admitting it to them feels freeing and like a weight has been lifted off his chest, it’s also terrifying and he’s unable to stop the tears that begin to fall down his face. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all sooner.”

And before he can get another word out he’s pulled into a hug by Changkyun. It’s probably the most awkward hug ever considering they’re both in chairs and Changkyun’s at a higher level than Jooheon as he’s on Minhyuk’s lap, but he appreciates the hug all the same.

“Don’t be silly,” Changkyun mutters, “we love you all the same, powers or no powers.”

“Yeah, nothing will change how we feel about you. You’re still our Jooheon,” Hoseok adds from across the table.

A giggle bubbles out of Jooheon’s chest at the sheer ridiculousness of him even  _ considering _ worrying about telling them. Their reactions were better than he could’ve even hoped for and he feels silly for ever doubting his friends. They really are the best friends he could’ve asked for. “Thank you guys. I’m glad I found you all.”

Changkyun finally lets Jooheon go and as Jooheon goes to sit back in his chair, Minhyuk swoops in to plant a sloppy kiss on Jooheon’s cheek. His mouth falls open in shock and his eyes widen.

Minhyuk just laughs beside him. “You’re cute, Jooheonie.”

“No, I’m not,” Jooheon says, crossing his arms and pouting. 

“You’re right. You’re not,” Kihyun says with a smirk.

Jooheon hits him. Because he deserves it.

“Anyway, we should probably figure out what to do about this whole situation,” Hyungwon says. “Any ideas?”

“I mean, I think all we can do for right now is to do some research into powers in general and also our own powers,” Kihyun suggests. “Jooheon, you can help Minhyuk and Changkyun research about dream powers if you want.”

Jooheon gives a thumbs up. “Sounds good to me.”

“Everyone in agreement?”

Hums and nods of agreement follow and the night turns from serious talks about the predicament they’ve found themselves into a fun night of jokes and banter.

* * *

Jooheon is  _ wiped _ . Spending hours upon hours with his friends is always fun and always makes him happy, but god does it exhaust him too. Especially after having to be in lectures all day. He feels like he’s had no time to rest and so when he finally gets into bed he lets out a pleased sigh and snuggles up in his duvet.

After Hyunwoo, Hoseok, Changkyun and Minhyuk had left after a many intense games of Mario Kart, Jooheon, Hyungwon and Kihyun had stayed up late just talking about whatever came to mind until Hyungwon had started to fall asleep and Kihyun had dragged him off to his room leaving Jooheon the last one up.

So, as much fun as Jooheon has had, a small part of him is glad that the night is finally over and he can get some sleep like he’s been so desperately needing. Whenever he finally feels like he’s caught up on sleep and not a literal zombie during the day he has another one of his weird dreams and it messes him up for nights to come as he’s afraid to fall asleep in case he ends up dreaming about something strange again, and when he finally gets over his fear another dream comes along and the cycle starts all over again. They’re a weekly occurrence at this point and so Jooheon’s just come to accept getting terrible sleep for the foreseeable future. Such is the life of a university student, anyway.

As Jooheon drifts off to sleep, his mind can’t help but keep coming back to the kiss Minhyuk had given him and heat rises to his cheeks. He’s glad to be alone in his room in the dark at this moment, because he can’t even begin to imagine how mortifying it’d be if someone were to see him right now being so flustered over something as simple as a kiss on the cheek. 

Remembering it only makes Jooheon feel giddy inside and he mentally slaps himself for it. He really needs to stop with the catching feelings for cute boys in relationships because it’s only going to end in a disaster for him. Especially catching feelings for  _ both _ of the cute boys in the same relationship.

Jooheon forcefully pushes all thoughts of Minhyuk and Changkyun out of his mind and tells himself to get some sleep and not think about either of them anymore.

(And if he dreams about the two of them, well, that’s his secret to keep.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update whdjhd i was meant to update on wednesday but. Shit Happens so here it is three days late

_ Those men again, the seven of them, their hoods up as they had been the time before. A sombre mood falls over them once again. That same field surrounds them, a campfire burns in the middle, but it’s a different day. The moon that hangs in the sky is waning, not the full moon it had been before.  _

_ One of the men stands. He looks weary. “It is almost complete,” he says solemnly. “We lost.” _

_ “We did not lose,” another replies. He has a strong voice, one not to be argued with. _

_ But the man argues back regardless. “We lost. We must accept it.” He looks around at the group, daring one of them to try and convince him otherwise. _

_ Even the man with the powerful voice doesn’t dare. He keeps his mouth shut tight. _

_ “They stole everything we have and ruined it,” the man continues. “They took it and changed it and now they will come for us.” _

_ “Those  _ powers _ of theirs are nothing compared to our magic. We can win,” another insists in a small voice.  _

_ The fire blinks out of existence and darkness falls over the group. The wind whips past them in stronger gusts. “None of you are listening to me. They have already won.” _

_ “You don’t know that. We have a chance.” _

_ The man doesn’t look convinced. He looks angry. His eyebrows are furrowed, but he sits back down and doesn’t say another word. _

_ The fire lights up again, starting small and then burning bigger and brighter, but it does nothing for the mood of the group. The darkness that lurks around them cannot be destroyed.  _

* * *

Jooheon stares up at the ceiling of his room, unblinking. His strange, unsettling dreams are becoming more and more common nowadays. But why does he even have such dreams? That’s a question he wish he had the answer to. 

It seems that every dream that unsettles him is either about these strange men in the field, or particular dreams about Changkyun and Minhyuk.

There’s a distinct difference between the two types of dreams he has about Changkyun and Minhyuk. There’s the unrealistic ones, his biggest fantasies played through in front of him, and then are the ones where Jooheon’s not involved, where it’s just Changkyun and Minhyuk and it feels more like he’s intruding on something. 

He can easily categorise the two types of dreams he has by the way they make him feel - either they leave him feeling happy and light, but they’re completely unrealistic, or they leave him with that sinking feeling in his gut. 

Jooheon sighs and rolls over, burying his face into his pillow. He feels like he hasn’t slept a wink, but he must’ve been asleep for hours as he didn’t go to sleep exceptionally late and the sun’s already risen outside. He forgot to close his curtains  _ again _ . It’s becoming one of his worst habits. The only benefit is that he wakes up to the natural sunlight instead of to his alarm, because waking up to an alarm is never fun.

Oh, yeah, his alarm. That should’ve gone off, surely? He has a lecture at 10am and it doesn’t feel like he’s woken up  _ that _ early, judging by the outside. 

Jooheon picks up his phone to check the time and is met with a sight he definitely didn’t want to see. 

It’s 9:42am. 

Jooheon scrambles to get out of bed and picks up the first items of clothing he finds on his floor, changes into them, throws his textbook into his bag and hurries out of the door. Then, seconds later, he hurries back into his flat and into the bathroom to quickly run his toothbrush around his mouth. He doesn’t do the two minutes that he should, nowhere near it in fact, but it’ll have to do. Anything is better than nothing. 

Then, for the second time already that morning, Jooheon’s running out of the door and slamming it shut behind him. 

* * *

“You look like shit,” Changkyun says to Jooheon as soon as the lecture they’re in is over. 

“Thanks,” Jooheon replies sarcastically. Sure, he’d run into the lecture late with dishevelled hair and his t-shirt on backwards with bags under his eyes, but it could be worse. Maybe. Actually, thinking about it, Jooheon’s not so sure. This is probably up there for one of the worst states he’s come to uni in and he’s not even hungover, which is quite an achievement in itself. 

Minhyuk smacks Changkyun over the back of the head. “Don’t be rude. You look, uh, fine, Jooheonie.”

Jooheon appreciates his attempt at making him feel better, but he knows it’s a straight up lie. Changkyun’s right. He does look like shit. He hasn’t seen himself in a mirror but he’d quickly caught his reflection in a window when he was running to class and what he’d seen was enough to tell him that yes, he looks downright awful. “I do look like shit, though.”

“Yeah, you kinda do,” Minhyuk agrees sheepishly. “Did you, like, not sleep or something?”

“I slept for, like, eight hours,” Jooheon replies with a sigh. “I don’t feel like it though.”

“Damn, that’s a lot of sleep,” Changkyun comments like it’s not the recommended number of hours adults are meant to sleep for. 

Jooheon’s tempted to launch into a lecture to Changkyun about how he needs to be sleeping more if he thinks eight hours is a lot, but he holds back. Honestly, he’s too tired to speak too much right now. If only he didn’t have to, you know, actually do things today so he could go back to his warm, cosy bed. 

He shakes himself out of his thoughts of bed and sleep because dreaming about what he can't have won’t bring it to him any sooner. All he has to do is get through a few more hours and then he can go back to sleep. He can manage that.

“Oh, did you put our names down for the project, by the way?” Jooheon asks. He’d noticed the sign up sheet when he’d come running into the lecture, but because he’d been late he didn’t get to mention it to Changkyun and Minhyuk until now.

“We decided to wait for you,” Minhyuk replies, “in case you changed your mind or something.”

“Why would I change my mind? You guys are my friends. Of course I want to work with you.”

“You never know.”

The three of them finally pack up their things and make their way down to the queue of people at the front waiting to add their names to the list. “If either of you need to go anywhere I don’t mind waiting,” Jooheon offers. He has no idea what their schedules are like. 

“Nah, we’ve both got nothing. We were thinking of heading to the library after this, though, to try look into dream powers a bit if you want to come?” Changkyun says. 

“I’m down, but I really need a coffee.”

“I’ll go get you one if you two wait to sign up. My treat,” Minhyuk says, pats Jooheon on the shoulder and then disappears out of the room before Jooheon’s tired brain even gets a chance to process what he’s just said. 

“Is he always like that?” he asks Changkyun.

Changkyun nods. “You get used to it.”

* * *

After they add their names to the list, Changkyun and Jooheon make their way to the library where they find Minhyuk already waiting with three drinks sitting on the table in front of him. 

“I’m still not sure we’re allowed to drink in here,” Changkyun comments as they sit down, but he picks up the drink that Minhyuk pushes in his direction and takes a sip anyway. 

“The librarians love me, so it’s fine.”

Jooheon’s not sure how true that is, but it does seem like Minhyuk has everyone wrapped around his finger so he wouldn’t be too surprised to find out that he’s managed it with the librarians, too. Minhyuk just has a way of charming everyone he meets, it seems. (Jooheon included, but that’s besides the point.)

“Can you go find the books on dream powers, love?” Minhyuk asks Changkyun, blinking his eyes innocently. 

Changkyun glares at him but without complaint he gets up, leaving his drink behind, to find the books as Minhyuk requested.

It only serves as further proof that Minhyuk really  _ does _ have everyone whipped. Well, maybe Changkyun shouldn’t count because the two of them are dating, but still. 

Changkyun returns a few minutes later with a stack of thick, old books in his hands. “I don’t know if any of these are useful but we could all take one and have a look through and see what we find?”

Jooheon and Minhyuk nod and take a book from the stack each. The book Jooheon ends up with is particularly old and the pages practically crumble beneath his fingers as he turns them. He barely touches the pages as he turns them, afraid the book will disappear beneath his fingers if he isn’t careful, and skim reads each of the pages. There’s a contents page at the front but it’s only half filled in. The whole book is handwritten, so that’s probably why. It seems like a journal of sorts with someone’s own personal research into powers, but so far Jooheon hasn’t seen a thing about dream powers. 

As someone without a power, dream powers have always been the ones that intrigue Jooheon the most. He doesn’t know what it is, maybe it’s the fact he’s had weird, vivid dreams all his life that makes him relate to it in a way, like maybe if he’d been born with powers like everyone else he’d have been given dream powers or something. 

With the book providing no help, Jooheon pauses and looks up at Changkyun and Minhyuk. Both of them are deep in concentration reading their own books, but Changkyun looks up when Jooheon stares at him for a second too long and tilts his head to the side. “You okay?”

“I was just wondering about dream powers because this book is useless. Can you tell me more about yours?” Jooheon asks sheepishly. He knows the point of being here is to find out things they  _ don’t _ know yet, not just have Changkyun and Minhyuk relay their knowledge to Jooheon, but he’s too curious not to ask. He wants to know everything. 

“Well, there’s not much to it, really,” Changkyun says, “it’s kinda boring and simple compared to other people’s powers. I sleep, occasionally have a nightmare and it eventually comes true.”

Jooheon pouts. “It’s not boring. It’s interesting.”

Changkyun’s face changes into panic almost instantly. “Fuck, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just, I grew up with these god awful nightmares and never understood why until I was older so I just, you know, kinda hate my power, to be honest.”

“No, no. You didn’t upset me,” Jooheon rushes to say because he isn’t upset. He understands that for someone with powers who’s lived with it their whole life it’s just the norm to them, even though to Jooheon it’s so intriguing. He has to remember that most people have powers and so the whole concept of powers and actually being more than just a regular human is what everyone’s used to. “Have you had them since you were born, then?”

“Mhm. Apparently I’d wake up screaming when I was a kid and babble nonsense to my parents until they eventually took me in for testing and figured out that it wasn’t just me having weird nightmares but actually my power.”

“That sounds awful.” Jooheon feels for Changkyun he really does. “I have weird dreams sometimes about the strangest shit and I wake up so unsettled after.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like.” Changkyun frowns for a moment. “Are you  _ sure _ your dreams aren’t powers?”

Jooheon is sure by now. He’d thought for a long time that there’s no way he’s powerless, his dreams must have some meaning, but they’re just dreams. He’s tried to convince himself otherwise too many times. “Kihyun asks me the same but I’ve been tested every year since I was a kid and nothing. They just tell me I have strange dreams but it’s not a power, I don’t know.”

“Sorry for bringing it up,” Changkyun says quietly, looking down at his lap. “I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“I don’t mind, really. It’s quite nice, actually, to be able to talk about it with someone other than Hyungwon and Kihyun and not feel like a freak.”

“You’re not a freak, Jooheonie,” Minhyuk speaks up for the first time since they started reading the books Changkyun had brought over. “Don’t ever think you are. If anything we’re the freaks.”

Jooheon smiles and feels all warm inside. How did he get so lucky to meet two such kind and wonderful people?

* * *

When Jooheon gets back to his flat later that evening he finds the last sight he expected to see - Kihyun and Hyungwon cuddling on the sofa. Sure, they’re dating and he’s known about it for a little bit now and they’ve been dating for even longer, but both of them are very private people with their relationships (which is probably why he didn’t figure it out sooner, despite being told by them) and it’s unusual to see them acting, well, affectionate in any sort of way. Kihyun’s more affectionate with Jooheon than he is with Hyungwon, honestly. (But maybe that has more to do with Jooheon’s love for attention and being babied than anything to do with Kihyun himself.)

“Damn, tone down the PDA in here,” he jokes as he slips off his shoes and coat.

“No,” Hyungwon replies snappily. 

Jooheon clamps his mouth shut. He’d only been joking, of course, but apparently his joke wasn’t appreciated. He tries to quietly slip past them and into his room, not wanting to interrupt them any further, but as he walks past he notices that Hyungwon’s eyes are red and he pauses. “What happened?”

Hyungwon sighs and Jooheon panics for a moment that he’s about to tell Jooheon to leave him alone or something, but he doesn’t. Instead, he quietly says, “Come sit.”

Their sofa barely fits two people so it’s a squeeze for the three of them to fit on there, but Jooheon doesn’t mind. He pats Hyungwon’s knee cautiously and Hyungwon gives him a small but appreciative smile. 

“Did you have a good day?” Hyungwon asks, clearly deflecting from the fact he’s been crying, but Jooheon lets him have it. If he doesn’t want to talk about it right now, or at all, Jooheon won’t make him. 

“Really good,” Jooheon says with a smile. “I spent most of the day with Changkyun and Minhyuk.”

“Is someone developing a crush?” Kihyun teases knowingly. 

“No, of course not,” Jooheon denies. He would say he can’t believe Kihyun caught onto him so quick, but he can believe it. Kihyun’s always been able to pick up on Jooheon’s crushes, sometimes even before Jooheon’s been able to figure it out himself. 

Kihyun raises an eyebrow and stares at him.

“Okay, maybe a little. They’re both cute, okay? Anyway, that’s besides the point. We did some research on dream powers and stuff but didn’t find any explanations yet as to why they work so differently.”

“I wish we could know why this is happening,” Hyungwon says. “I hate this.”

That must be what he’s upset about, Jooheon realises. Hyungwon’s always been quite dependent on his power - more so than most people are - but it’s not like Jooheon can judge him for it. If he had the ability to manipulate time and fix his mistakes right after doing them he’d probably take advantage of that too, but it makes sense why it’s hitting Hyungwon particularly hard that they’re losing their powers. It’s hitting everyone hard, it seems, and Jooheon really does feel for them. He can’t imagine having something all of his life only for it to be taken away with no explanation or any solution as to how to get it back.

“We’ll figure this out, yeah? We’re doing the research and working hard. Whatever it is that’s causing this, we’ll fix it,” Jooheon promises, and he’s starting to believe it this time. If anyone’s going to figure out their issue, it’ll be their group of friends, he’s sure of it. He’s overheard other people around campus talking in hushed tones about their powers being affected, so he at least knows that it’s affecting everyone at their university, if not people even further out, and he’s sure other people are trying to figure things out, too. But, even then, Jooheon has a feeling, a good feeling, that it’ll be them to do it. They’ll save everyone’s powers.

“Will we, though?” Hyungwon asks. “I hate to be the pessimist, but we’re in over our heads here.”

“I know we will. You’ll all get your powers back.”

Hyungwon doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t try to argue further. He drops his head onto Kihyun’s shoulder and shuffles closer to him and Kihyun wraps his arm around Hyungwon even tighter.

It makes Jooheon smile to see. Seeing his friends’ love for each other makes him so happy. He hopes one day he can have that love with someone (or someones) too.

Jooheon shivers suddenly as the coldness of the room hits him. “It’s freezing in here.”

“Innit. Can you turn the heating on? I forgot when I got home,” Kihyun says. He doesn’t even bother to use that overly sweet voice he does when he’s using his persuasion and Jooehon assumes it’s because he knows it won’t work.

But even without his powers, Jooheon would never say no to Kihyun’s requests. He only ever asks for small, simple things, anyway, and with everything that Kihyun’s done for Jooheon over the years it feels like a way for Jooheon to pay him back in small ways. 

He turns the heating on as asked and then yawns widely. “I’m going to head off to bed. Night.”

“Goodnight,” they both say at the same time. 

* * *

After another day of classes and working on both researching powers and their project, Jooheon is ready to go home and relax for a bit. Except, he knows how much Hyungwon (and Kihyun, but especially Hyungwon) has been struggling with losing his powers and so he’d text Kihyun earlier and told him to have a date night in the flat with Hyungwon to make them both feel better and he’d find somewhere to go. 

Kihyun had thanked Jooheon many times and Jooheon hopes that the two of them have a good night together, but it’s now left Jooheon with nowhere to go. He hadn’t actually thought about what  _ he’d _ do when the two of them are having their date, only that he’d stay out of the flat for them. 

Jooheon pulls out his phone and clicks on Changkyun’s contact. He hesitates for a moment before pressing the call button and bringing his phone up to his ear. It rings for a while and he almost hangs up, assuming Changkyun’s busy or his phone is on silent, but then Changkyun answers. 

“Hey,” he says, sounding out of breath.

“You okay?” Jooheon asks. 

“I ran to my phone,” Changkyun explains with a laugh. “Did you need something?”

“I kinda gave the flat to Hyungwon and Kihyun for a date night so could I come over or something? As long as you’re not busy.”

Changkyun’s silent for a moment and Jooheon panics that maybe he’s asked for too much from Changkyun. He opens his mouth to retract it, but doesn’t get a chance.

“Hyungwon and Kihyun are dating?” The shock in Changkyun’s voice reflects the shock Jooheon felt too when he found out and he can’t help but laugh. 

“I was shocked, too.” 

“I didn’t expect that. Wow. But, anyway, yeah, you can come over. It’s a bit of a mess, though. I didn’t expect guests and Minhyuk’s used to my mess.”

“I don’t mind mess,” Jooheon says. “My room is usually a right state.”

Changkyun laughs. “I’ll text you my address. See you soon.”

“Bye, Changkyunnie,” Jooheon replies and hangs up. He smiles to himself as he waits for Changkyun’s address to come through. He can’t wait to get to spend some more time with him.

* * *

“Your flat isn’t even that messy,” Jooheon says as he enters Changkyun’s flat. Sure, he has clothes in random places and, well, it could probably do with some dusting, but in comparison to some of the rooms he’s seen from university students, it’s not actually that bad at all. 

Changkyun shrugs. “You live in, like, the cleanest place ever.”

“I live with Kihyun,” Jooheon reminds him. “He cleans everything up. That’s why I don’t let anyone in my room because it ruins the illusion of the whole flat actually being nice and tidy.”

“You’ll have to let me see it one day so I feel better about myself,” Changkyun jokes. He leads Jooheon further into his flat, which is actually a studio Jooheon’s just now realising, and spins around once while holding his arms out. “This is my place.”

It’s spacious for a studio, but still cosy. His walls are decorated with posters and art in many different mediums. “Who did this?” Jooheon asks, pointing to one of the paintings. It’s abstract and colourful and Jooheon finds himself strangely drawn to it out of all of the art on his walls. 

“All of the art is by Minhyuk.”

Jooheon turns back to look at Changkyun with his eyebrows raised. “He’s really talented, wow.”

Changkyun smiles proudly. “He really is.”

Jooheon turns back to look at the painting once more and then wanders over towards Changkyun’s bed area. He has fairy lights surrounding his bed which is honestly adorable and a multitude of pillows and plushies. “I like your place,” Jooheon decides. “It’s cute.”

Changkyun blushes slightly, but smiles. “Thanks. I tried to make it, you know, actually look nice since I spend all my time here. I just hate tidying up.”

“You did good. Can I sit?”

Changkyun nods. 

Jooheon takes a seat on Changkyun’s bed because it’s the closest place to sit to him. Changkyun joins him a few seconds later and leans back against the wall with a pillow behind him. He hands an extra pillow to Jooheon to let him do the same. 

“Do you want anything to eat, by the way?”

Jooheon’s stomach chooses that exact moment to rumble as if in reply. “I’d kill for a Pot Noodle right now.”

“You’re in luck, then.” Changkyun stands up from the bed and heads over to the other side of the room where his kitchen area is. “Because that’s all that I have in my cupboards.”

“Such a typical uni student.”

Changkyun pulls out a Pot Noodle out of a cupboard of what seems like  _ hundreds _ . He wasn’t lying when he said it’s all he had in his cupboards, it seems. He turns back to Jooheon to wink at him before putting on the kettle. 

“I need to come over here more often if I get waited on hand and foot,” Jooheon jokes as Changkyun brings his Pot Noodle and a can of Coke over to him. 

“Ah, yes, being given instant food that’s brought from one side of the room to the other. That’s everyone’s goals.”

Jooheon slurps up one of his noodles and tries not to choke on it as he laughs at Changkyun’s comment. “I’m not, like, interrupting your time with Minhyuk or anything, am I?” he asks, suddenly panicking that he’s being a bother and Changkyun has other things to do with his time instead.

“No, of course not. I’m glad we’re getting to hang out together.” Changkyun punches Jooheon’s arm lightly. “Stop worrying.”

Jooheon just eats more of his noodles instead of replying. 

After he finishes, they watch some shitty game shows on Changkyun’s TV and make fun of everyone for getting the easy questions wrong and then chat about anything and everything together and before either of them realise it it’s already 2am and Jooheon has a 9am class to get to in the morning.

“Shit, I should probably go home and sleep,” Jooheon says through a yawn.

“Sleep here,” Changkyun offers. “We’ll have to share my bed, though, because I don’t have anywhere else for you to sleep and usually Minhyuk’s the only one who comes over.”

Changkyun has a double bed so it’s not like it’d be hard for them to fit in together, but Jooheon doesn’t want to overstep. “Are you sure? Minhyuk won’t mind?”

“Minhyuk hates sleeping alone so he shares his bed with all his friends. If anything, I think he’d be jealous that he doesn’t get to join us.” Changkyun frowns. “Are you comfortable with it?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m just, you know, worrying again.”

Changkyun flicks Jooheon’s forehead. “You need to stop doing that.”

Jooheon nods because he knows Changkyun’s right. Sometimes he just wishes he could turn his mind off for a bit so he could stop worrying about anything and everything. 

They take it in turns to change and get ready in the bathroom (and Jooheon has to brush his teeth with his finger, which is never a fun experience) and then they climb into bed together. Jooheon expected that it’d take him a while to fall asleep being in an unfamiliar place and sharing the bed with someone else, but in fact it takes him almost no time at all. 

Only minutes after his head hits the pillow, he’s out like a light. 

* * *

Jooheon wakes up when he feels movement on the bed and a quiet whimpering sound. In his disoriented, bleary state it takes him a few minutes to register where he is when he opens his eyes, and another minute longer to realise that what woke him up was Changkyun crying in his sleep.

His eyes are closed, but Changkyun’s clearly crying. Tears stream down his face and every now and then Jooheon will hear him whimper quietly.

Jooheon doesn’t know what to do. Does he wake Changkyun up? Should he wait for Changkyun to wake up on his own? Does he go back to sleep and pretend he heard nothing? No, that’s a terrible idea. He definitely shouldn’t do that. But will Changkyun appreciate being woken up from his sleep?

Changkyun lets out another whimper that sounds suspiciously like Minhyuk’s name and Jooheon decides that leaving Changkyun to sleep through whatever awful dream he’s having wouldn’t be fair on him.

Shit, Changkyun has dream powers. Well, not dream powers, but nightmare powers. What if he’s having a nightmare about the future?

Jooheon gently shakes Changkyun’s shoulder. “Kyunnie, wake up. Come on. It’s time to wake up.” He continues to gently coax Changkyun into a state of awakeness. 

Changkyun jolts up in his bed all of a sudden and Jooheon moves backwards to give him space. Changkyun looks around for a bit, eyes wild, before he looks at Jooheon and the tears fall even heavier.

Jooheon pulls Changkyun into his chest without even thinking about it and rubs his back as Changkyun cries.

Minutes pass and eventually Changkyun manages to calm down. He pulls back from Jooheon and rubs his eyes as he looks at him. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be,” Jooheon says without hesitation. “What happened? Was it a nightmare?”

Changkyun nods. “The same one about Minhyuk.” As he says it the tears fill his eyes again and Jooheon regrets asking, but they don’t fall. He blinks them away. “I’m so scared. I’ve never had the same nightmare twice before. I don’t know what to do.”

Jooheon doesn’t know what to do either, really. He doesn’t know what he can possibly do or say to comfort Changkyun. It’s really just a waiting game until Changkyun’s nightmare comes true and they’ll just have to deal with the aftermath when it comes to it. “Do you want me to call Minhyuk over?”

“Yes, please,” Changkyun says in a small voice. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this.”

“I don’t mind,” Jooheon reassures him. “I just wish I could do more to make you feel better.”

“You being here makes me feel better.”

Jooheon focuses on his phone so that Changkyun can’t see that he’s blushing at that. He texts Minhyuk to tell him to come to Changkyun’s because Changkyun had another nightmare and Minhyuk wastes no time in promising to head over there right away, even though it’s 4am and Jooheon didn’t actually expect him to be awake still.

* * *

Between the two of them, it takes a while to calm Changkyun down enough for him to sleep again. Over the past hour since Minhyuk arrived Changkyun’s been on and off crying and panicking and it’s been horrible for Jooheon to watch so he can’t even imagine how Changkyun’s feeling right now. The only good thing that’s come out of this situation is that Changkyun finally told Minhyuk about his dream rather than keeping it from him.

When Changkyun is finally in a deep sleep, his head in Minhyuk’s lap as Minhyuk runs his hands through his hair and his hand limp in Jooheon’s own where he’d insisted Jooheon hold his hand, Minhyuk finally admits to Jooheon just how scared he is, too.

“I’m terrified. I don’t want to get hurt and he’s never been wrong before. What if something really bad happens?” Minhyuk asks quietly, probably wary of waking Changkyun back up now he’s finally fallen asleep again. 

“Whatever happens, you’ll get through it, Changkyun will get through it, we all will. I promise.” And maybe it’s a promise Joohoen can’t really make, but it’s one he feels like he has to. He can’t let himself even entertain the idea of losing Minhyuk. It’s unlikely to happen, anyway. Changkyun had only dreamed about Minhyuk getting injured and nothing more. He’s sure there’s an explanation for it and Minhyuk will recover just fine. He has to. 

“Thank you for being here,” Minhyuk says after a silence stretches on for a while. “He really trusts you, you know.”

“I trust him too. Both of you. I’m glad I found you.” It’s funny, really, to think back at when he had that strange dream about the two of them and then finally got to know them and how quickly they became such an important part of his life. Jooheon can’t even imagine his life without Changkyun and Minhyuk now, Hyunwoo and Hoseok either. 

He finally feels like he’s found his family.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just a whole lot of fluff as a bit of a break from all the angst there's been so far hehe

_ “Changkyun-ah. Kyunnie, wake up,” Minhyuk mumbles, shaking Changkyun gently.  _

_ Changkyun mutters something in his sleep that sounds like ‘please, no’, but doesn’t wake up.  _

_ Minhyuk shakes him a bit harder, a concerned look on his face. “Come on, baby. Wake up.” _

_ Changkyun stirs and finally opens his eyes. He blinks confusedly for a few seconds, eyes darting all over the room until they finally settle on Minhyuk. “Min?” _

_ “You were muttering things in your sleep,” Minhyuk says, stroking his hand through Changkyun’s hair. “Was it a nightmare again?” _

_ Changkyun nods. “Same one.” _

_ Minhyuk sighs. “That’s the third time now?” _

_ “Yeah. Jooheon was here the last time.” Changkyun stares up at the ceiling. Tears start to slowly fall from the corners of his eyes down onto his pillow. “I don’t know what to do, Min. I’m so scared,” he whispers.  _

_ With Changkyun’s attention focused on the ceiling, Minhyuk lets his fear be shown on his face. He looks downright terrified.  _

_ But the second Changkyun lifts his head to look at Minhyuk, his expression changes. He frowns slightly. “What are we going to do with you, huh, Kyunnie?” _

_ Changkyun chokes out a laugh at that. “Can’t you just dream up something nice so that I have something to look forward to?” _

_ “I wish I could. I’d dream up, uh, a puppy.” _

_ Changkyun’s face lights up. “A puppy for us?”  _

_ Minhyuk nods, a small smile working its way onto his face. “One day. We’ll have a cute little house with a garden and lots and lots of puppies.” _

_ “I can’t wait for that day,” Changkyun says.  _

_ “Me neither, baby. Me neither.” _

* * *

Jooheon wakes up at 6am, far earlier than he needs to be awake with his first lecture being at 10am, but he finds that it’s impossible to fall asleep with the dream playing on his mind. 

It felt  _ so _ realistic, and he knows that’s because he’s been spending more and more time around Changkyun and Minhyuk to know how they’re feeling about Changkyun’s nightmare situation. 

But it sucks that not only does he have to see the constant fear and worry on Minhyuk’s face that he tries so hard to hide from Changkyun, and also the hurt and exhaustion that Changkyun’s clearly feeling, he also has to dream about it now?

By 8am, Jooheon has managed to distract himself from his dream by watching cute cat videos on his phone. 

There’s a knock on his door and then Kihyun asks, “Are you awake?”

“Yeah, come in,” Jooheon replies. 

Kihyun gives his room a once over and turns his nose up at the mess. “It’s an absolute state in here. You need to tidy.”

“You could do it for me,” Jooheon suggests jokingly, but it’s only a joke in that he knows Kihyun wouldn’t do it. He’s deadly serious in that he’d let Kihyun tidy his room, he just knows it isn’t a possibility. 

“No, thanks,” Kihyun says. “Anyway, I found some stuff out in an old book so I wanted to run it past you before I just, you know, tell everyone. To see what you think and stuff.”

Jooheon perks up at this. New information? That’s something none of them have found, well, at all, really. He, Minhyuk and Changkyun had spent hours upon hours in the library researching powers when they could’ve spent that time researching for their project instead only to come up empty handed, but Jooheon isn’t going to be the one to complain about getting to spend more time with Minhyuk and Changkyun. 

“What did you find?” he asks. 

“I don’t, like, completely understand it, but there was some research done into how specific frequencies affect powers,” Kihyun says. “I don’t think whatever project it was actually got completed, but from what I did manage to read they found that certain really high frequencies can weaken people’s powers.”

“So, someone could be purposefully messing everyone’s powers up?” Jooheon asks. “How easy is this research to get ahold of?”

Kihyun shrugs. “It could be accidental. It wasn’t easy for me to find, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that someone else didn’t find it and decide to fuck campus up.”

Jooheon wonders who possibly would want to affect people’s powers in such a way. There are so few people in the world  _ without  _ powers like himself that it seems almost impossible that it’s someone who’s powerless being bitter and wanting to cause everyone else to be powerless like themselves. So then who? Someone who dislikes their power?

It all just makes no sense and hurts Jooheon’s brain to think about. 

“Let’s tell the others, see what they think,” Jooheon says. “It’s the only lead we’ve got right now.”

Kihyun nods and stands. “I can let Hyungwon, Hoseok and Hyunwoo know when I see them. I assume you’ll be seeing Minhyuk and Changkyun?”

“Got a lecture with them later, yeah.”

“Okay.” When Kihyun’s at Jooheon’s door, about to leave, he turns back and says, “You should tidy, by the way, if you ever invite them over. You don’t want your crushes to see your room looking like a pig-sty, do you?”

With a wink, Kihyun’s gone. 

Jooheon groans and curses his friend for being so observant and picking up on his crushes so easily. He’s never going to hear the end of it now. 

But really, he should tidy his room. 

* * *

When Jooheon gets to his lecture room, he sees Minhyuk waiting outside, leaning against a wall with his eyes closed. Even from the distance he’s at, Jooheon can see the exhaustion on Minhyuk’s face, the way his clothes are crumpled and his hair a mess on his head. 

“Morning,” Jooheon greets. “Where’s Kyun?”

Minhyuk opens his eyes finally and gives an attempt at a smile. “He doesn’t feel well, so he stayed home.”

“Nightmares?” Jooheon guesses. 

Minhyuk nods. “I stayed at his last night and every time he fell back asleep he’d have another nightmare and wake up,” he says. “I’ve had, like, no sleep.”

“You look rough,” Jooheon says, then realises how that sounds and his eyes widen. “Shit, sorry, didn’t mean that in a harsh way.”

Minhyuk laughs. “Nah, don’t worry. You’re right.” He pauses for a moment, lost in thought, then says in a small voice, “I’m really worried about him and I don’t know what to do.”

Jooheon frowns and reaches out to gently put his hand on Minhyuk’s arm. “It’s never been like this before?”

“Never. We’ve known each other for years and he’s never had nightmares like this. I just— I hate this. I hate seeing him like this.”

“Maybe it’s this whole powers shit going on?” Jooheon suggests. “I mean, what do I know, really,” he adds, feeling awkward for talking about powers when he doesn’t have them himself. With Kihyun and Hyungwon he doesn’t care so much as it’s been years, but he doesn’t want to overstep with Minhyuk. 

“You are allowed opinions despite not having powers,” Minhyuk reassures, figuring Jooheon out easily. “But it could be? I mean, this is new territory for all of us. Who knows what’s going on.”

Jooheon hums, then checks his phone for the time. “We have a minute until this lecture starts. Should we go in?”

Minhyuk nods. “Come on, then.”

* * *

“Should we get some research done?” Jooheon asks. It feels weird to do research without Changkyun and Minhyuk looks exhausted so there’s no knowing if he’ll be up to it, but it’s become so routine for them to go to the library together after their lecture ends that Jooheon feels like he has to ask. 

“Sure,” Minhyuk agrees easily. 

After they both grab some of the old history books that they haven’t yet checked, they find a table together in a secluded corner and sit down. Jooheon opens up his book and scans the contents page for dream powers, but doesn’t see a specific section on dream powers, so flips to the index instead. He finds that there’s some info scattered throughout the book. 

Jooheon gets about halfway through the list of pages mentioning dream powers when he realises that Minhyuk’s stack of books are still sitting untouched next to him and he’s staring off into space. 

“Minhyuk? You okay?”

Minhyuk blinks a few times and then focuses on Jooheon. “Sorry, it’s just been a hard night.”

“Why don’t we go on a walk for a bit?” Jooheon suggests. “It won’t matter if we don’t research today and it feels weird without Changkyun here, anyway.”

“A walk sounds good, yeah.”

They put their books back on the shelves and head outside. Jooheon instantly spies a poster on the wall. He points excitedly to it. “Dogs on campus? Today?”

Minhyuk finally perks up a bit hearing this. “Really?”

Jooheon nods. “It’s in the courtyard. Should we go?”

“Duh. Who wouldn’t want to go see some dogs?”

They start to walk towards the courtyard. “It sucks Changkyun isn’t here. He loves dogs, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, but I’ll take loads of photos for him, hopefully that’ll make up for him not being here,” Minhyuk says. 

There’s a long queue for the dogs when they finally make it to the courtyard, but that doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Students hear that there’s dogs on campus and they can’t resist, but really, who could?

Jooheon and Minhyuk chat about whatever comes to mind as they slowly move up in the queue and when they’re at the front, next in line to meet the dogs Minhyuk’s practically bouncing with excitement. 

And when it’s finally they’re turn and they’re sent over to an adorably fluffy golden retriever who jumps up at them, its tail wagging behind it, Minhyuk lets out a squeal of excitement. 

“So cute,” Minhyuk says excitedly, leaning down to hug the dog. “What’s its name?” he asks the worker sitting nearby. 

“He’s called Fluffy,” the worker replies. 

“Fluffy!” Minhyuk repeats to Jooheon, his entire face lit up in happiness. “He’s fluffy and he’s called Fluffy. That’s the cutest thing ever.”

If Jooheon was braver, he’d make a comment about how Minhyuk might actually be the cutest thing ever, not the dog, but he keeps that comment to himself. (It’s the truth, though.)

Minhyuk sits down on the mat on the floor and buries his face into Fluffy’s fur. “Jooheon, I’m going to die.”

Jooheon laughs. “Why? Is he too fluffy?”

“Yes,” Minhyuk whines dramatically. He’s still clinging onto Fluffy like his life depends on it. “I love him and I want to keep him forever.”

“Sadly that’s not a possibility.”

Minhyuk removes his face from the dog’s fur to look back at Jooheon and pout. “But I wanna keep him.”

“Maybe if you ask Changkyun nicely he’ll let you get a dog with him,” Jooheon jokes. 

“I told him we could get some dogs the other day, actually, and he seemed excited.”

Jooheon smiles at that. “Then you can have your own Fluffy together eventually.”

“But Jooheon,” Minhyuk starts, that pout returning to his face, “I want a Fluffy right now.”

Jooheon leans in close to Minhyuk and whispers conspiratorially, “Maybe we can steal him when no one’s looking.”

“Shut up,” Minhyuk says with a laugh, reaching over to smack Jooheon lightly. “Now, come give Fluffy kisses. He needs love and affection.”

Jooheon distantly wonders if somehow Minhyuk learnt to actually communicate with animals, but before the thought can even properly manifest in his mind, Minhyuk’s pulling him over to Fluffy and forcing his arms around the dog. 

Fluffy whips around to start licking Jooheon’s face. 

The feeling of the dog’s rough tongue against his skin makes Jooheon giggle. “Stop,” he says between his giggles, trying to move his face away from Fluffy. “You’re cute, but please stop licking my face.”

Fluffy stops obediently and instead nuzzles into Jooheon’s chest, climbing into his lap (which he absolutely is too big to properly fit on) and settles down happily. 

Jooheon turns to Minhyuk to brag about Fluffy loving him, and notices that Minhyuk’s watching the two of them with a soft smile on his face, holding up his phone towards Jooheon and Fluffy. 

“Are you taking photos of me?” Jooheon asks, curious. 

“For Changkyun,” Minhyuk explains. 

Jooheon frowns. “But wouldn’t he want photos of you and Fluffy, not me and Fluffy?”

“Nah, you’re cute, he’ll love it with you in.” He says it so nonchalantly that Jooheon’s mind is too slow to process the comment before Minhyuk’s moving on to his next sentence. “Unless you don’t want me to take photos of you?”

“No, no, I don’t mind,” Jooheon replies quickly. “I just didn’t think you’d want me in the photos, that’s all.”

“Time’s up, sorry, guys,” the worker who Minhyuk had spoken to earlier says apologetically. 

Jooheon looks down at Fluffy sadly. He’ll miss him, for sure. “Come on, Fluffy, I gotta go,” he says, encouraging the dog to get off his lap. 

Fluffy seems reluctant, but climbs off Jooheon’s lap. He gives Jooheon’s face one last final lick, which Jooheon takes as his way of saying goodbye. 

Minhyuk kisses the top of Fluffy’s head then says in the most dramatic voice, hand to heart, “I’ll never forget you, Fluffy.”

Jooheon rolls his eyes and grabs Minhyuk’s arm to drag him away. “Don’t be embarrassing.”

Minhyuk gasps. “Me? Embarrassing? Never.”

Jooheon just stares at him blankly. 

Minhyuk meets his stare, but then suddenly gasps once again. “I have the best idea!”

“Which is?”

“Let’s get back in line to meet Fluffy again.”

Jooheon takes one look at the line that’s stretching all the way across the courtyard, shrugs and says, “Sure, why not?”

* * *

After making it back through the line an additional three times (which they only stopped then because the workers started giving them weird looks), Minhyuk’s mood seems to have improved a lot.

“I miss Fluffy,” Minhyuk whines, a pout on his face, tugging on Jooheon’s sleeve. 

“Do you miss him more than Changkyun?” Jooheon asks. They’re headed to one of the shops near to campus to pick up some soup for Changkyun and some popcorn for Minhyuk and Jooheon before they go visit Changkyun and force him into a movie night. 

“Yes,” Minhyuk replies, deadpan. “Kidding, don’t tell him I said that.”

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.”

Minhyuk tugs Jooheon’s sleeve again. “Don’t be a meanie, Joobie.”

Jooheon raises an eyebrow. That’s a new nickname. “Joobie?”

“Joobie boobie,” Minhyuk says then bursts into laughter. “Oh my god, I need to tell Changkyun that one.”

Jooheon groans, but it’s lighthearted. It’s nice to see Minhyuk joking around and happy after the exhaustion and sadness Jooheon knows he’s been facing with everything going on with Changkyun. “I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”

“Nope,” Minhyuk replies, popping the ‘p’. “Now come on, let’s get these supplies.”

Jooheon follows Minhyuk into the shop and they grab everything they need (as well as a whole lot of unnecessary sweets and chocolate) and then head down to Changkyun’s flat. 

Minhyuk lets himself in, calling out, “I hope you’re decent, Joobie’s here!” as they enter. 

“No, I’m completely naked,” Changkyun replies from his bed. 

Jooheon looks over to see that he’s thankfully 100% clothed. He takes a seat on the end of Changkyun’s bed while Minhyuk goes into the kitchen to heat up the soup. 

“How are you feeling?” Jooheon asks. 

“I’ve been better,” Changkyun replies. He looks similar to how Minhyuk did this morning, but his eyebags are somehow even worse. “Better now you’re here,” he adds. 

Jooheon wills away his blush. “We got you soup. And sweets and chocolate and popcorn, but that’s mostly just whatever Minhyuk was craving.”

“He always does that. You can’t take him anywhere with anything sweet.”

“Does that mean I can never see you again, baby?” Minhyuk says in a sickly sweet voice. 

Changkyun fake gags. “Jooheon, do you want him instead? I don’t.”

(Jooheon does. He wants them both. He can't say that, though.)

“I think he fell in love with one of the dogs on campus today, so you might be being replaced with a pet,” Jooheon says to avoid the truth. 

“Fluffy? The one I got 20 million pictures of?”

Jooheon nods. “He was very fluffy.”

“So fluffy,” Minhyuk agrees. “So very, very fluffy. I miss him.” He flops down on the bed unceremoniously, landing on Changkyun’s legs and crushing him. 

“Get off,” Changkyun complains. 

Minhyuk rolls over until he’s managed to fit himself between Jooheon and Changkyun. “Better?”

“Mhm,” Changkyun confirms. “You know, this bed really isn’t made to fit three people.”

“Anything is made for three people if you try hard enough,” Minhyuk says, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“I don’t know what that means,” Jooheon says, “and I don’t want to know, either.”

Minhyuk clutches his chest. “You wound me.”

The microwave dings to signal that the soup is ready. 

No one makes a move, and Jooheon finds Changkyun and Minhyuk looking at him pleadingly. He sighs, but stands anyway. “You’re both the worst.”

“You love us,” Changkyun singsongs. “You’d do anything for us.”

Jooheon doesn’t even make a move to deny that. He chooses to ignore it instead. He grabs a tea towel to carry the bowl over to Changkyun with, it being far too hot to hold with his bare hands, and puts it down on his bedside table. He bows dramatically and says, “Your Highness.”

“Cheers, dude,” Changkyun replies. Clearly he missed the memo on how princes speak. 

“Do you want me to feed it to you?” Jooheon asks as a joke. 

“Well, if you’re offering.”

Jooheon scowls and returns to his seat at the end of the bed, except now Minhyuk’s made himself comfortable there instead and so there’s not a lot of space left for Jooheon. “Do you want me to sit on your floor like a dog?”

“Yeah,” Minhyuk says. “Now sit like a good boy.”

Jooheon does not, in fact, sit. He stares at Minhyuk instead, who’s looking back at him with a huge grin on his face. 

“Come on, Joobie boobie. Sit, now.”

Jooheon glares. If he could throttle Minhyuk right here and now, he would. “I hate everything about this, just so you know.”

Changkyun, who’s been slurping down his soup through this exchange, pipes up with, “When you said we could get a dog, Min, I didn’t think you meant Jooheon.”

“I’m not your dog. You both suck,” Jooheon complains. 

Changkyun laughs loudly. “Bark for me, Jooheonie.”

Minhyuk must finally take pity on Jooheon as he rolls back up the bed to the space where Changkyun’s feet were before he sat up and pats the now slightly bigger space between him and the wall at the end of the bed. “Come join.”

Jooheon squeezes himself into the gap. Then, a few seconds later, he says, “I forgot the popcorn.”

Three pairs of eyes glance over to the kitchen at the other side of the room where the popcorn sits on the kitchen counter. 

“I think it’s mocking us,” Minhyuk says. 

“I wish Hyunwoo was here. Or I wish I had telekinesis myself. Life is unfair,” Jooheon bemoans. 

“Quick, call Hyunwoo and tell him to come over and get our popcorn.”

“I mean, we could call anyone to do that. It doesn’t have to be someone with telekinesis,” Changkyun says. “Anyway, bagsy not it.”

“Bagsy not it,” Jooheon repeats quickly. 

They both turn to stare at Minhyuk. “You both suck,” he says, eloquent as ever, but gets up, grabs the popcorn and returns to the bed. 

As revenge for having to be the one who got the popcorn, Minhyuk decides that the whole bag is his and hogs it to himself instead of sharing. “I only give my popcorn to nice people. You’re both meanies.”

To be fair to him, Minhyuk did pay for the popcorn, but Jooheon takes offence to being called a meanie for the second time today. He tries to sneak his hand into the bag when Minhyuk isn’t paying attention, but Minhyuk notices and snatches the bag away. 

Except the bag is mostly full and open, and so the movement makes popcorn go flying everywhere. 

Changkyun stares at the two of them unimpressed. “You got popcorn all over my flat.”

“It was Minhyuk’s fault,” Jooheon says at the exact same time Minhyuk says, “It was Jooheon’s fault.”

They take one look at each other and burst out laughing. 

Jooheon glances over at Changkyun in his laughter and sees that his expression has also been replaced with one full of amusement and fondness. “You’re both such idiots,” he says. 

“You love us,” Minhyuk replies instantly. 

“Mhm, maybe.”

When the laughter subsides, Jooheon’s conversation with Kihyun this morning comes back to him. “Oh, by the way, Kihyun thinks he figured something out about powers,” he says. 

“What is it?” Minhyuk asks. 

Jooheon repeats to them what Kihyun had told him before and they both listen intently as he does. 

“That makes a lot of sense,” Changkyun says after he and Minhyuk have time to let the idea sink in for a bit. “I know the engineering lot have been working on some new big project that they’re keeping under wraps, but frequencies are probably involved in it. Maybe they could have something to do with it unintentionally?”

“If it’s just an unintentional fuck up I’ll be so happy,” Jooheon says. “I instantly jumped to the conclusion that it’s someone doing it on purpose.”

“We can’t rule it out, but this could be a possibility if what Kihyun found is true. I can talk to some people I know on the project and see what I can find out?” Changkyun offers. 

“That’d be good. Thanks, Kyun.”

Changkyun smiles warmly, then picks up his remote. “So, want to watch a film?”

“I want to watch one about dogs,” Minhyuk says quickly. “No more Venom. Please.”

Jooheon tilts his head, curious. “Venom? What’s the story there?”

“Changkyun’s obsessed with watching it. I’ve seen it more times than I can count.” Clear exasperation can be heard in Minhyuk’s and Jooheon can’t help but laugh. 

“No sad dog films, though. I don’t want to cry today.”

Changkyun tuts. “As if I’d ever pick a sad film. Come on then, let’s choose one.”

* * *

After finishing Venom (despite Minhyuk’s protests against watching it again), none of them find themselves wanting to move. Throughout the course of the film, they all ended up getting cosy together, and now Jooheon’s got Minhyuk resting against his side, his head on Jooheon’s shoulder, and Changkyun’s got his head resting in Minhyuk’s lap. 

“You guys can sleep here, if you want,” Changkyun offers, ending his sentence with a huge yawn. 

“Can we even all fit here?” Jooheon asks. He’s got no problem with sleeping over, in fact he’d actually much rather do that than have to walk all the way back home, but it was enough of a squeeze when he’d slept over with just Changkyun. The addition of Minhyuk makes him wonder how it’ll work. 

“We can fit,” Minhyuk says, “but I’m a cuddler, just to warn you.”

“I don’t mind,” Jooheon says. “You both cool with me being here?”

“Jooheon, if you don’t stop worrying I’ll smack you,” Minhyuk threatens, but his voice is laced with sleep and he’s also resting on Jooheon, so it doesn’t have the impact he might think it does. 

“What he said,” Changkyun agrees. 

After they all get changed into some comfier clothes of Changkyun’s and properly get themselves ready to sleep, it takes some rearranging for the three of them to find a comfortable enough position for them to sleep in, but when they finally settle down a smile comes to Jooheon’s face. 

Despite the struggles they’re all facing recently, especially Changkyun and his nightmares, today was a good break from that and Jooheon feels a lot happier and lighter than he has done in a while. 

“Goodnight,” Jooheon says. 

“Night,” Changkyun mumbles in reply. 

Minhyuk doesn’t even reply, so Jooheon looks over and sees he’s fast asleep. 

He laughs, quietly as to not wake Minhyuk up, and shuts his eyes himself, letting sleep overtake him. 

* * *

Surprisingly, the three of them manage to sleep through the night without Changkyun having a nightmare or anyone waking up for any other reasons. Jooheon feels well rested when he wakes, more than he has done recently with his own constant strange dreams, and he finds it’s nice to wake up in the morning to see Changkyun and Minhyuk. 

The happiness only lasts so long before he gets a call from Kihyun. “Where the hell are you?” is what he’s met with when he answers. 

“Changkyun’s, why?” Jooheon says.

Minhyuk and Changkyun frown at him, clearly having heard Kihyun’s question on the other end, but Jooheon can only shrug. He has no more idea what’s going on than they do. 

“Come home. Bring the others,” Kihyun says. 

“What’s going on?”

“Come home,” Kihyun repeats. “I’ll explain when you’re here.”

“Are the others coming?” Jooheon asks. 

“No. I just need you three.”

“Okay, we’ll be there soon.” 

After he hangs up, Jooheon looks to Minhyuk and Changkyun who are both wearing expressions of worry that match how Jooheon feels. “I guess we should get going.”

* * *

Jooheon can barely even bring himself to insert his key into the door. He has no idea what Kihyun’s waiting to tell him on the other side of this door and he’s not sure he wants to find out. 

But, he can’t stand out here forever, so he unlocks the door and lets Changkyun and Minhyuk enter before him. They’re clasping each others’ hands as they walk in. 

“Kitchen!” Kihyun calls as Jooheon closes the door behind him and leads Changkyun and Minhyuk into the kitchen where Kihyun’s waiting. 

He’s cooking breakfast while humming a song under his breath. 

Jooheon frowns. “Didn’t you urgently ask us to come here? I thought something was wrong?”

“Oh, we do need to talk,” Kihyun says, not even looking up from the stove, “but nothing’s really that wrong. I just knew if I didn’t hurry you you’d never come home.”

Jooheon groans as he takes a seat at the table. “You fucking suck. I thought someone died.”

Kihyun doesn’t acknowledge that with a reply. Instead, he says, “I made pancakes.”

Jooheon watches as Minhyuk and Changkyun both instantly sit up straighter in their seats at the mention of pancakes, their eyes twinkling. “Kihyun, you’re the best,” Minhyuk says. 

“Oh, I know. Jooheon just forgets that sometimes.”

Jooheon rolls his eyes. “Sod off.”

“Do you want pancakes or not?” Kihyun asks like Jooheon’s a child who needs to learn to behave. 

Jooheon smiles innocently. “I’d love pancakes, my bestest friend ever who I love so much.”

Kihyun stares at him for a few seconds, unimpressed, then finally serves the pancakes to everyone. 

They fall into silence as they eat the pancakes, other than the occasional compliment about Kihyun’s cooking, and it’s only once everyone’s finished that Kihyun finally decides to talk about what he’d asked them to come over for. 

“I assume Jooheon told you guys about what I found?” he asks Minhyuk and Changkyun. 

Changkyun nods. “I think it might be something to do with the engineering department. I’m going to look into it.”

“Good. We need to get this figured out. I can’t keep looking at the others and seeing how sad they are about having no powers,” Kihyun says, his voice filled with sadness. “You guys aren’t affected by all this, so I feel like it’s easier to ask you lot to help me figure it out.”

“Don’t worry,” Minhyuk reassures, “we’ll figure it out. I have a good feeling that we’ll get it fixed soon.”

Jooheon nods in agreement. They’ve had no leads or ideas since this first started and for a long time it’s felt like they’re getting no closer to finding out what it is that’s affecting everyone’s powers or how to possibly fix it. With Kihyun and Changkyun’s new information put together, it really does feel like they’re finally figuring this out. They finally have something to go off of, and that feels good. 

If Minhyuk has a good feeling, then Jooheon does too. He knows they’ll get this figured out and everyone will get their powers back. He has hope, now. Hope that he’d lost for a period of time, but now it’s back and stronger than ever. 

“I’ll look into the engineering situation as soon as I can,” Changkyun promises. “Like Minhyuk said, we’ll figure it out. We’ll get your guys’ powers back.”

Kihyun smiles thankfully at the three of them. “I feel better now. I really feel like we can do this.”

And Jooheon can’t help but agree.

They can do this. They can solve this issue and get everyone’s powers back. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was meant to be up yesterday but. i didnt realise it was wednesday KSHHFS so. have it a lil late hehe

_ A dark night. The same field with the campfire. It’s hard to tell whether this is close in time as the last time they spoke, or if months have passed. Every day it looks the same.  _

_ The same seven men as before, their hoods up, a solemn mood in the air.  _

_ “The war is coming,” one of them says.  _

_ It seems like everyone already knows this.  _

_ The man continues, “We are going to lose to these new powers. We cannot defeat them. Science wins over magic for the final time.” _

_ “No,” one of the others replies, angry. “Magic cannot lose. We cannot let magic cease to exist.” _

_ “What can we do?” another asks. “There are so few of us and so many of them. What options do we have?” _

_ “We fight. We fight until we can fight no longer. We go down fighting. We cannot let them win.” _

_ A sense of hope comes over the group at these words. “Maybe we can do this,” one says. “Or we can try, at least.” _

_ The first man, the one who seems like the leader of the group, nods. “We must do our best to keep magic alive. These ‘powers’ as they call them are just copies of what we have. They have nothing on us.” _

_ Everyone murmurs their agreement, and the mood lifts significantly.  _

_ “We can do this.” _

* * *

Jooheon is getting slightly sick of these strange dreams. He’s even tried to google dream meanings to try and figure out why he’d possibly be dreaming about random men in a field talking about a war, but Google had been incredibly unsuccessful in giving him any information about what that could possibly mean. 

He decides to put the dream out of his mind for today, act like it doesn’t exist. He’s meeting up with all of his friends today, anyway, so he spends all morning thinking about that instead of his dream. 

When he’s outside of Hoseok and Hyunwoo’s flat, Jooheon feels excited to finally see his friends again, especially Hyunwoo, Hoseok and Hyungwon as he hasn’t seen them in a while, but he’s also slightly worried, as he knows no one’s been doing good with the powers situation recently and Jooheon’s not sure how to really comfort anyone about it, not having powers himself. 

Jooheon finally convinces himself to knock on the door. Hyunwoo answers quickly, greeting Jooheon and letting him inside. 

Jooheon follows Hyunwoo into the living room where Hoseok and Hyungwon are waiting for them, watching the news on TV. At Jooheon’s arrival, Hoseok mutes the TV. 

“Hey,” Jooheon greets as he takes a seat on the sofa beside Hyungwon. “Kihyun had to run errands, but he should be on his way soon.”

“We’ll just assume Changkyun and Minhyuk are on their way soon, too,” Hyunwoo says, referring to their track record of always turning up late to group meetings. It’s become a running joke now, to guess how many minutes late the two of them will be, and Jooheon’s almost certain they’ve caught on and so keep coming later and later on purpose. 

Jooheon decides to ask the question about everyone’s powers to get it out of the way. “So, how are you all doing, you know, with everything going on?” 

“It’s hard,” Hoseok admits. “It’s weird having something for your whole life and then it suddenly disappearing, you know?”

Jooheon can’t completely relate not having powers himself, but he understands what Hoseok means to an extent. 

“I really just want this all to be over,” Hyungwon says. “I hope we can figure it out soon. Or someone else can, I don’t care, as long as we can get our powers back.”

Jooheon nods in understanding. “I have hope we’ll figure it out soon,” he says, hoping to reassure them. 

“Did you find something?” Hoseok asks, sitting up straighter in his seat. 

Jooheon shakes his head and Hoseok visibly deflates. “Not quite. We’ll have to see what Changkyun says when he finally gets here, but I think maybe we’ll get it sorted soon and you’ll all have your powers back.” He smiles at Hoseok, hoping to reassure him a bit, and Hoseok attempts a smile back, which is progress at least. 

“It feels so weird to complain about not having powers when this has been your whole life,” Hyungwon says quietly. “It’s probably insensitive.”

“No, it’s not,” Jooheon reassures. He really has never considered that the way his friends feel about losing their powers is in any way negative towards him. “It doesn’t bother me that you guys talk about how it’s affecting you. We have different experiences, anyway. You’re having something taken away from you, I never had it in the first place.”

Hyungwon smiles. “Thanks, Heon.”

Then, the doorbell rings. 

“So, bets on it being Kihyun or it being the troublemakers?” Hyunwoo asks as he gets up to open the door. 

“Kihyun,” Jooheon, Hyungwon and Hoseok all say at the exact same time, which sends them into fits of laughter. 

When Hyunwoo opens the door, much to everyone’s surprise it’s not Kihyun who he lets in, but Changkyun and Minhyuk. 

“Wow, you guys are early,” Jooheon comments. He can’t name a single time that the two of them have ever turned up early to any meeting before, only to lectures, and even then it can be hit or miss. Jooheon has had to sit down alone in his lectures with them and watch them scurry in five minutes after the start time more times than he probably should’ve. 

“We come late on purpose because we know you guys bet on it,” Changkyun says, a smirk on his face. “Did anyone lose today?”

Jooheon wonders how they figured out that the rest of the group has been betting on their arrival times, then he remembers that more than once someone has unsubtly slid a £5 note to another person as soon as the two of them showed up, so maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. 

“We didn’t do any money bets today,” Hoseok says. “Just one about who was at the door and we all said Kihyun.”

Changkyun frowns, pulls a £10 note out of his pocket and hands it to Minhyuk. “You planned this, didn’t you?”

Minhyuk smiles but shakes his head. “I would never do such a thing.”

But when Changkyun isn’t looking Jooheon spots Minhyuk give Hyungwon a wink and he has to hold back his laugh. Of course Minhyuk scammed his own boyfriend out of money on a bet, but he’s sure Minhyuk will go and spend that money on Changkyun, anyway. Even an outsider to their relationship can see how much Minhyuk loves to spoil Changkyun. 

Just as Hyunwoo sits back down, the doorbell sounds again. He groans and stands back up. “Couldn’t he have been, like, two minutes earlier?”

Everyone laughs as Hyunwoo leaves once again and returns with Kihyun this time. 

“I’m the last one here?” Kihyun asks as he enters the room. “When have Changkyun and Minhyuk ever not been late?”

“Hey, listen, it’s Changkyun’s fault. When I’m on my own I’m always early,” Minhyuk says. 

“You spend, like, at least five minutes before we leave checking your hair in the mirror. It’s your fault,” Changkyun says back. 

Minhyuk sticks his tongue out at Changkyun, because clearly he’s the epitome of maturity. 

Jooheon laughs quietly, fondly, as he watches them interact. 

God, he’s whipped. 

Changkyun spots Jooheon laughing and smiles at him, a small secret smile between the two of them, and Jooheon feels his heart pick up pace. 

And then, a second later, the moment is gone as Changkyun addresses the whole group. “So, I assume Kihyun told you all about what he found regarding the possibility of certain frequencies impacting powers.”

Jooheon nods and hums an agreement along with everyone else in the room. (And even though the moment with Changkyun is over, Jooheon still finds his heart beating wildly in his chest.)

“I had a feeling the engineering department could be doing something that could be causing frequencies,” Changkyun says. If he’s telling them all about this, Jooheon can only assume that he has good news to share and he feels excitement course through his veins. Are things finally looking up for them? “I looked into it - and it wasn’t easy, by the way, so I expect nothing but praise and compliments from all of you for the next three days at least - and I discovered that they’ve recently started working on a huge project together.” He pauses for effect, but Jooheon knows what’s coming next. He’s sure they all know what’s coming next. “I’ll spare you all the details, because I’m sure you don’t care, but the gist of it is that the machine they’re using for this project releases frequencies into the air and it’s turned on 24/7.”

Jooheon can’t stop the smile from appearing on his face. He knew Changkyun could do it, knew he could find something when no one else could. Well, of course, Kihyun should get some credit too for being the one to actually discover the research that let them know that this was a possibility. 

“So, we might be able to get our powers back?” Hoseok asks. His voice is filled with hope, the same hope Jooheon feels blooming in his chest. 

Changkyun nods, a smile appearing on his own face. “I believe so, yes.”

“I had a dream the other night,” Minhyuk says. He’s smiling too. They’re all smiling. It can’t be helped. “It was really good. We were all celebrating together about something, and I saw Hyunwoo moving objects across the room, so I can only assume that it was a celebration for us figuring it out.”

Minhyuk’s dreams have never been wrong, so they’re getting their powers back. Jooheon doesn’t even have a power and yet he finds excitement fill every inch of his body. 

“We really figured it out?” Hyungwon asks, shock evident on his face. “We really did it?”

“We still have to get into the engineering building and sort that machine out,” Changkyun says, “which is a whole other issue, but I think we have a plan.”

“You’re about to suggest we sneak into a building in the middle of the night, aren’t you?” Kihyun asks.

Changkyun grins. “You read minds now or something?”

Kihyun groans while the rest of them laugh. “So, what’s the plan, then?” 

“I have a set of keys to every building on campus - don’t ask, it’s a long story,” Changkyun starts.

The set of keys sounds familiar to Jooheon, triggers some sort of memory that he just can’t quite place. It’s like trying to grab onto something  _ just _ out of reach, but no matter how far he stretches, his fingers never quite cross the gap. 

“They have patrols out on campus during the nights for safety or whatever, so we’re going to have to figure out a way for us to sneak past them and get to the building, so if anyone has any ideas for that, feel free to tell me. Anyway, we just need to get in and get down to the basement where the machine is. I can alter it to stop releasing those frequencies for good, but I’ll need you guys to keep an eye out in case for some reason anyone decides to make a midnight trip to check on their machine. Once I’ve fixed it, we should be good and everyone’s powers will be back.”

The idea in itself seems so simple, too simple almost, but Jooheon isn’t sure he could deal with something complicated right now, anyway. He really just wants this to be over and done with at this point. 

“So, we meet up tonight and we finally fix this?” Hyunwoo asks. “Doesn’t it seem too easy?”

“Easy is good, right?” Hoseok asks. “There’s nothing to say that this has to be some big, complicated scheme that we have to figure out. It’s better that it’s easy. We can have our powers back soon.”

No one can argue with that. It does seem too easy, even Jooheon can admit that, but Hoseok’s right. Easy isn’t a bad thing. They deserve for this to end easily after how much time and effort they’ve had to put into researching and hitting dead end after dead end. Minhyuk had a dream about them celebrating and Hyunwoo, at least, using his powers again.

This has to be the solution, because if there’s another one then Jooheon has no idea what any of them will do. 

“We’ll meet up later and we’ll finally get your powers back,” Changkyun says with a finality to his words.

Everyone cheers and whoops and smiles are thrown around.

Things are finally looking up. 

* * *

“Do you want to come get pizza with us?” Changkyun asks.

Jooheon looks at Changkyun, considers turning down the offer because he doesn’t want to interrupt a date or anything (he knows they’ll say they don’t mind, they like hanging out with Jooheon) but before he even has a chance to open his mouth, his stomach growls loudly. “I guess that’s the answer,” Jooheon says sheepishly. 

Changkyun smiles. “Come on, then.”

They end up getting a bus into town because, well, none of the pizza places near to campus do any good pizza. Jooheon found that out the hard (and expensive) way after trying all of them in the hopes of finding a hidden gem that he could easily get to whenever he’s craving pizza, but he had no luck. 

The restaurant they go to ends up being a diner-style restaurant, with the typical red booths lining the walls and down the centre of the room to provide more than enough seating, as well as retro music playing quietly throughout the place. 

“I can’t believe I never knew this existed,” Jooheon says as he slips into the booth they’ve picked out, Changkyun and Minhyuk sitting down opposite him. “The aesthetic is cool.”

“We actually only found it because right before my flight here I ended up having a dream that Changkyun and I’s first date in England was in this super cool retro pizza place. So, as soon as we both got here, we hunted this place down immediately,” Minhyuk says, a fond smile on his face. 

Jooheon really does start to feel that maybe they’d wanted to come here on another date, seeing as, you know, this is the spot of their first date together here and invited him out of pity, but he isn’t able to start voicing his worries aloud before Changkyun’s got him figured out. 

“You’re worrying again,” Changkyun says. “Don’t do that.”

Jooheon sighs. “I’m a mess. I can’t help it.”

“We’re all messes here. That’s why we’re friends.”

“Excuse you,” Minhyuk says, slapping Changkyun’s hand lightly, “don’t call me a mess. You two might be messes, but I’m absolutely not.”

Jooheon and Changkyun just stare at him until he relents. 

“Okay. Fine. I’m a mess, too. We’re all messes together. Happy now?”

Changkyun grins. “Very.”

Jooheon laughs and shakes his head. “I can’t believe this is the conversation we end up having as soon as we end up just the three of us.”

“It’s fun though, isn’t it?” Changkyun says, smiling still. 

Jooheon can’t deny that. “You’re right.” He picks up the menu and tries to ignore that it’s sticky. That’s the worst thing about restaurants. It’s impossible to find one that doesn’t have the most disgustingly sticky menus. “So, what’s worth getting?”

“Changkyun and I usually just buy two pizzas we both want and split them,” Minhyuk says. “We can get three and do the same if you don’t mind sharing?”

“That’s good with me.”

They end up ordering a pepperoni pizza, a BBQ chicken pizza and a Hawaiian pizza (at Minhyuk’s insistence). As soon as they order Jooheon finds his hunger grow and grow. 

“This pizza better be good,” he says. 

“It’s the best,” Changkyun promises. “We come here, like, all the time. I think most of my money has been spent on the pizza here.”

“Even more than on textbooks?” 

“Who actually buys textbooks in this day and age?” Changkyun jokes. “I pirate all mine online. Save that cash to spend on pizza.”

“He likes to spend my money on pizza, too,” Minhyuk says, fake annoyed. “You’re lucky I like you just a little bit.”

Jooheon can’t help but laugh when Changkyun’s jaw drops and he sits there staring at Minhyuk with his mouth wide open. 

“I can’t believe this,” he says. “All this time I thought you liked me at  _ least _ a normal amount.”

“You two are so ridiculous,” Jooheon says, the perpetual smile he always has when he’s around Changkyun and Minhyuk plastered on his face. 

Their three pizzas appear at their table so they thank the waiter and then quickly dig in. Despite Changkyun and Minhyuk’s insistence that this is the best pizza ever, Jooheon hadn’t quite believed them, but after trying a slice of each of the three pizzas, there’s only one thing he can say:

“This really is the best pizza ever.”

“I told you,” Changkyun says with a mouthful of pizza, which prompts Minhyuk to cover his mouth. 

Minhyuk tuts and says, “Finish chewing before you speak,” except the effect is kinda lost as Minhyuk said it with his own mouthful of pizza. 

Jooheon chuckles as the two begin an argument about whether or not you should speak with your mouth open (except they both kinda end up arguing the exact same point, so it ends up effectively pointless). 

When the three of them find themselves appropriately stuffed and every last crumb is gone, Jooheon leans back in the seat and complains, “I don’t think I can ever move again.”

Changkyun rubs his stomach and sighs. “I feel like I’ve doubled in size with how much pizza we just ate.”

“It was good though,” Minhyuk says. “So worth it.”

Jooheon has to agree. He’s definitely sold on this pizza and he doesn’t want to eat pizza from anywhere else ever again. Domino’s who?

They end up sitting in their booth for a bit longer, finishing off the last drops of their drinks and chatting about whatever comes to mind. Once Jooheon feels like he can move again, he stands and they decide to go their separate ways for the rest of the day to prepare for their evening ahead. 

Jooheon’s form of preparation is to take a nap, which he thinks is the only valid way to spend the rest of his day before sneaking into a building to mess with some sort of machine and save everyone at their university’s failing powers, of course. 

* * *

When it finally passes midnight, Kihyun knocks on Jooheon’s door.

Jooheon, already dressed and ready for his first (and hopefully last) foray into a life of crime and trespassing, pulls open his door with a smile and says, “Are we going?”

Kihyun nods. “Everyone’s on their way there. We’re meeting at the ugly horse statue.”

“That is  _ not _ a horse,” Jooheon argues as they set off on the walk to campus. 

“What is it then?”

“Fuck if I know, but whatever it is it’s bloody cursed.”

“You’re not wrong,” Kihyun says, amused. 

It takes them no time to reach campus - they picked their flat for a reason - and find the rest of their friends waiting at the cursed ‘horse’ for them. 

“How’s the plan looking?” Kihyun asks as they approach. 

“It’s all looking good except there’s a guy patrolling near the building, so we need someone to distract him,” Changkyun answers. 

Simultaneously, six heads all turn to look at Kihyun. 

“Why are you all looking at me? I don’t even have my powers. I can’t do it.” Kihyun crosses his arms over his chest in a huff, but Jooheon can see the nervousness that’s hidden behind it all. He’s worried that without his powers to fall back on he might mess up and then they’re all going to be in a lot of trouble. 

“You don’t have to do much,” Minhyuk reassures. “Just distract him while we all sneak in, and then once again when we need to get back out. Maybe flirt with him a little bit or something.”

Hyungwon chokes out a laugh. “You don’t want Kihyun flirting with anyone. Trust me.”

“I constantly wonder why the fuck I’m dating you,” Kihyun says, rolling his eyes. 

A shocked gasp sounds and Jooheon looks over to see Hoseok with his mouth hanging open. “You’re together?”

“How does no one know this?” Kihyun says, exasperated. 

Hyungwon pats Kihyun on the shoulder. “They just don’t understand our love.”

Jooheon fake gags, which gets everyone laughing. 

“Anyway, Kihyun, go distract the guy so we can finally get everyone’s powers back,” Minhyuk says, making a shooing motion with his hands. 

Kihyun grumbles about how they all suck and he doesn’t deserve to be the one left with the worst job, but he hurries off to complete his task anyway. 

The other six watch as Kihyun talks to the security guard in the distance and then sneak over to the engineering building opposite where they were waiting. Kihyun’s managed to get the man to face away from the building, so they have a much easier shot at getting inside without being spotted. 

Changkyun fumbles around with his keys for a bit, trying to figure out which is the right one for the door and tension is high, but he manages to locate it and they get into the building without being seen. 

“Come on. It’s down in the basement,” Changkyun says and starts to lead their little group towards the basement. 

The door leading down there isn’t locked, but why would it be when the main door is supposed to be locked?

As they make their way down the stairs, Jooheon starts to get suspicious about how easy this seems to be. 

But, there’s still the actual machine to deal with yet, so maybe it’ll only get harder from here. 

They make it down into the basement and in the middle of the room is an absolutely  _ huge _ machine, much bigger than Jooheon had expected it to be. “What does this even  _ do _ ?” he asks in awe. 

“Do you really want me to explain it?” Changkyun asks. 

Jooheon considers it for a moment. “Actually, don’t tell me. Just get on with dealing with this.”

Changkyun laughs. He pulls out his laptop, plugs it into the machine with some wire he has on him and then perches on the edge of a table. “I think this is going to be loud, just a warning.” He does something on his laptop which turns the machine on full power, instead of the standby it’s left on most of the time. It suddenly has bright flashing lights all over it and the noise is louder than Jooheon expected. It sounds like a plane taking off. 

Changkyun says something, but over the machine it’s impossible to make out what he’s said. He repeats himself to Jooheon, but again, Jooheon can’t understand him. 

Changkyun just waves his hand and then gets to work on fixing this machine. He starts tapping away on his laptop as the others wait. 

Minhyuk starts to get restless after around five minutes, and disappears off to the other side of the basement out of Jooheon’s sight, presumably to go explore. 

Hoseok, Hyunwoo and Hyungwon make a signal to Jooheon pointing towards the stairs and then their ears and Jooheon nods. He doesn’t mind waiting with Changkyun, but he understands the others not wanting to be around this machine. It is really damn noisy. 

Jooheon sits down next to Changkyun on the table and watches his screen. He has no idea what Changkyun’s doing - his screen is just covered in lots of letters and numbers that probably have a meaning, but not one Jooheon understands - but it’s more interesting to watch his screen than just stand around waiting. 

Jooheon doesn’t know how much time passes as Changkyun works on the machine and he doesn’t want to ask Changkyun how much longer is left, either, as he doesn’t want to distract him or appear impatient. 

So, he sits and waits. 

At one point, a loud crash sounds from somewhere on the dark side of the basement, and Jooheon stretches his neck to try and see over there, but it’s dark so he can’t make anything out. It was probably nothing anyway. 

Probably another ten minutes or so pass before the machine finally powers down and Changkyun turns to Jooheon with a triumphant grin. “I stopped it transmitting those high frequencies and also made sure they can’t reset it back to doing so.”

Jooheon smiles, opens his mouth to congratulate Changkyun, when his name is screamed across the basement. 

Changkyun abandons his laptop and the two of them go running in the direction of the shout because that was most definitely Minhyuk’s voice. 

Changkyun mumbles, “No, no, no. Not now,” under his breath as they run, but Jooheon doesn’t get a chance to question it. 

Jooheon pulls his phone out of his pocket to use it as a torch and they find a collapsed bookshelf blocking them off from going any further. 

“Changkyun! Jooheon!” Minhyuk’s yelling from somewhere beyond the bookshelf. 

Jooheon swings his torch around, but it’s not just a bookshelf that’s collapsed. It appears that the entire wall has come down with it. “We’re here, Minhyuk,” Jooheon yells back. “We’ll come get you!”

He dials Hoseok’s number, knowing he’s most likely to pick up, and begs him to come back downstairs with Hyunwoo and Hyungwon and help them get to Minhyuk. Hoseok agrees and they hear the sound of feet running above them and then down the stairs over the other side of the room. Jooheon shines his torch in that direction so they can see where he and Changkyun are waiting. 

Hoseok, Hyunwoo and Hyungwon join them right after and Hyunwoo asks, “How bad is it?”

“We don’t know how Minhyuk is,” Jooheon replies. “He’s clearly okay enough to yell for us, though, so that’s a bonus.”

“This was my nightmare,” Changkyun says, his voice barely above a whisper. “He’s trapped down there bleeding and we can’t get to him.”

Jooheon pulls Changkyun into a hug, cups the back of his head with his hand and says, “We’ll get him out. I promise. He’ll be fine.”

Changkyun starts to cry in Jooheon’s arms, so Jooheon gently strokes his hair to try and calm him down and then turns to look at the other three. “Can you get Minhyuk out?”

“I don’t think I’ll be much help,” Hyungwon jokes, “but I’ll do my best.”

“We’ll get him,” Hyunwoo promises. 

Jooheon turns his attention back to Changkyun, ignoring everything else going on. He can trust their friends to get Minhyuk out, so Changkyun is his priority right now. 

“I’m so scared,” Changkyun whispers, sniffing after where his nose is running along with his tears. 

“He’ll be fine,” Jooheon reassures. “Minhyuk had a good dream, remember, where we’re all celebrating together. That hasn’t happened yet, so we know it’s still going to happen.”

Changkyun pulls back from Jooheon’s chest to look at him. His face is tear stained and blotchy, but Jooheon still thinks he looks beautiful. “I’m overreacting, I’m sorry.” He tries to pull away, but Jooheon doesn’t let him. 

“You’re not. I understand why you’re scared.” Jooheon cups Changkyun’s cheeks and wipes the tears that continue to fall away with his thumbs. “Everything will be okay.”

Changkyun smiles finally and leans into Jooheon’s touch. “Jooheon, I—”

“Changkyunnie!”

Changkyun whips around and goes running into Minhyuk’s arms. Jooheon smiles, glad that Minhyuk seems to be okay and that Changkyun’s nightmare is finally over, then turns to Hoseok, Hyunwoo and Hyungwon.

“Thank you,” Jooheon says. “I would’ve helped but, you know.”

“We get it,” Hoseok says, smiling. “Hyunwoo did all the work, anyway.” He kisses Hyunwoo’s cheek. 

“Did Changkyun get the machine sorted?” Hyungwon asks. 

“Yeah,” Jooheon says, grinning wide. “Everyone’s powers should be back now.”

Instead of their smiles staying like he’d expected, Jooheon ends up with three fallen expressions in front of him. 

“What? Do they not work?”

Hoseok shakes his head solemnly. “I tried to heal Minhyuk - he’s got a huge cut on his forehead from god knows what - but I couldn’t.”

Jooheon feels all the excitement and happiness he’d felt start to disappear. “Could it just take a while for things to go back to normal?” he tries, hoping to find some sort of reason why they’d still be without their powers. 

“It could, but I don’t have much hope,” Hyunwoo says. “I don’t think this was actually what’s causing it all.”

Jooheon feels like the weight that had previously lifted from his shoulders is suddenly back and crushing down on him. He really thought they’d finally figured it out. He’d been  _ so _ excited and full of so much hope, only for it to be taken away from him. 

What do they even do now? This was their last shot, their only possible idea as to what might be causing everyone’s powers to be affected. Jooheon, Changkyun and Minhyuk have already looked through every book in the library possible, Kihyun and Hyungwon have scoured the internet for anything that might possibly explain this situation, Hyunwoo and Hoseok have spoken to more people than Jooheon can count. 

What else is there left to do?

“Hey, Jooheon,” Minhyuk says, bringing Jooheon’s attention over to him. “Thank you for taking care of the baby over here.”

Changkyun scowls and then hides his face in Minhyuk’s shoulder. “You’re embarrassing.”

“It’s my duty as your boyfriend to embarrass you,” Minhyuk says, ruffling Changkyun’s hair. To Jooheon, he says, “Are we in the clear finally, then?”

Jooheon shakes his head sadly. He’d really wanted to finally figure this out, have everything go back to normal, but instead he has to break the news to Changkyun and Minhyuk that they’re no better off than they were before. “I don’t know what we’re meant to do now,” Jooheon says. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Minhyuk says, determined. 

“Will we?” Changkyun asks in a small voice. “I thought I saved everyone, but I didn’t.”

“We’ll save everyone. I know we will.” Minhyuk sounds so certain that no one argues with him. 

But even so, Jooheon can’t help but wonder if maybe this is the end of powers for most people. If maybe it’s finally a time for people to become like Jooheon -  _ powerless.  _


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second to last chapter!!! this is probably my fave chapter of the fic so i hope everyone likes it too :3

_ Changkyun gulps as he looks at Minhyuk. They’re sitting on opposite ends of Changkyun’s bed - a purposeful distance between them. An unusual distance between them.  _

_ “Are you breaking up with me?” Minhyuk asks, his voice cracking at the end. His eyes shine with tears.  _

_ “Oh, god, no. Never,” Changkyun is quick to say. He moves forward, lessens the gap between them, takes hold of Minhyuk’s hands. “You’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing at all. Actually, it’s me who’s wrong, maybe. I don’t know. I’m worried you’ll hate me.” _

_ Minhyuk lets out a shaky breath. He’s avoiding Changkyun’s eyes, instead looking at their joined hands. “I won’t hate you. Did you do something bad?” Suddenly, he looks up, eyes wide. “Did you kill someone?” _

_ Changkyun manages a laugh at this. “God, no. I did nothing bad. Nothing on purpose. I just—” Changkyun licks his lips, pauses. It’s clear from his face that he’s struggling to find the words. His eyes dart around the room, as if the answer he’s looking for will be hidden in one of the corners.  _

_ Minhyuk sits there, as patient as ever, and he waits. There’s worry written all over his face, and he’s probably desperate to know what it is that Changkyun has to say, but he doesn’t push him. He simply sits and waits for Changkyun to figure his words out.  _

_ Changkyun finds his voice again. He asks, “Do you remember that…  _ thing  _ we talked about when we were younger? Before we started dating?” _

_ Minhyuk chuckles. “You’re going to have to be more specific there, baby.” _

_ The struggle for words has taken a hold of Changkyun’s vocal chords again. He opens and closes his mouth over and over like a fish, as if he’s going to speak, but not a single word comes out.  _

_ Eventually, after a few minutes pass, he whispers out, so quietly that it can barely be heard, “I spoke to you about how I always had crushes on multiple people.” _

_ “Right,” Minhyuk says, and understanding dawns over his face. Whether it’s because he remembers the conversation, or whether he’s realised the direction of  _ this _ conversation is hard to tell. “I remember that.” _

_ “Yeah.” _

_ A silence falls over them again, and Changkyun doesn’t look like he wants to fill it. His face is twisted in anxiety and worry.  _

_ Minhyuk, though, looks far less worried than he did earlier - in fact, he almost looks relieved? Excited? It’s hard to place the emotion, but all the fear has drained away now.  _

_ Carefully - ever so carefully - Minhyuk asks, “Kyunnie, are you trying to tell me you have feelings for someone else too?” _

_ The second the words leave Minhyuk’s mouth tears start streaming down Changkyun’s face. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Minhyuk. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.” He keeps babbling out apologies, his tears only falling harder and faster.  _

_ Minhyuk hushes him gently, rubs his thumbs over Changkyun’s knuckles to try and calm him. “Shh, baby. It’s okay. I’m not upset.” _

_ Changkyun cries for a few moments longer, but eventually calms himself down enough to speak properly again. He hiccups, then says, “You don’t hate me?” _

_ “I’d never hate you,” Minhyuk promises. “I love you more than anything.” _

_ With Changkyun’s secret out in the open, neither of them know how to proceed.  _

_ But, there is a burning question on Minhyuk’s mind. A guess he has to make. “Please don’t cry again, okay? But I have to ask. It’s Jooheon, isn’t it?” _

_ Changkyun nods but doesn’t open his mouth, as if he’s too afraid to speak.  _

_ Much to Changkyun’s surprise, Minhyuk smiles. “Good. This is good.” _

_ “Good?” Changkyun asks.  _

_ Minhyuk nods. “It means we’re on the same page.” _

_ It takes a few seconds for Changkyun to process the words, but when he does, his eyes go wide. “You too?” _

_ “Yeah. Me too.” Minhyuk reaches up, gently cups Changkyun’s face and wipes away the tears with his thumbs. “How do you want to proceed with this?” _

_ Changkyun laughs quietly. He brings his hands up to cup them over Minhyuk’s. “I didn’t think that far ahead. I thought I’d tell you and you’d hate me, honestly.” _

_ “I’d never hate you. Ever,” Minhyuk says again, like he’s trying to drill it into Changkyun’s mind. “We can tell him, if you want. Give a relationship a go if we all agree on it.” _

_ Changkyun looks unsure. “Will it work? A relationship with three people?” _

_ “Of course it would,” Minhyuk reassures. “It would take work, and it might not be easy, but if it’s what we all want, I’ll put in any work it takes. If you don’t want this, though, I won’t be upset or unhappy. I’ll love you and be with you whatever happens.” _

_ Changkyun thinks over the words - you can practically see the cogs turning in his mind. He mulls over it for a while as Minhyuk continues to wipe away any stray tears that fall from Changkyun’s eyes.  _

_ Then, Changkyun says, “I want to tell him. I want him to know, even if nothing comes from it. He deserves to know.” _

_ Minhyuk nods, smiles. “Then, we’ll tell him.” He leans forward, kisses Changkyun’s lips, and then giggles against them. “You taste salty.” _

_ This finally brings a smile to Changkyun’s face. “I love you so much,” he breathes out, and then pulls Minhyuk back for another kiss.  _

* * *

Jooheon wakes up and stares at his ceiling for one minute. Two. Five. He loses count, eventually. 

Apparently his dreams are trying to torture him now. He couldn’t have just had a normal dream, no. He had to have a dream about the best thing that could possibly happen to him actually coming true. 

Except, he didn’t even get to the part where he got confessed to before he woke up, which kind of really sucks, but what can you do?

Jooheon sighs and rubs his eyes. He feels like he hasn’t slept a wink, which doesn’t bode well for the day. He’s got a full day of classes and seeing friends, and not a single chance to have a nap. 

Maybe napping in a lecture isn’t such a bad idea. He can just sit right at the back, no one will see him, it’ll all be fine if he just—

No. He can’t be thinking about this. Napping in a lecture is a terrible idea, and something that Jooheon won’t be doing. (Not again, at least.)

He can get through today, and then when he does he’ll be able to sleep through the night. And he  _ will _ be sleeping through the night without any dreams making him feel like he hasn’t. He’s going to make sure of that. 

(He’s not sure how, but he will.)

First, he needs to get himself out of bed. That’s always the hardest thing to manage in the mornings. Once he’s up, it’s easy enough to go through the motions of getting ready. It’s just taking that first step that Jooheon always struggles with. 

Jooheon checks his phone. 8am. His lecture starts at 9am, and it takes around 15 minutes to walk to campus. He doesn’t take much longer than 15 minutes to get ready, either. So, as long as he doesn’t waste any time with getting ready, he can sleep for an extra 30 minutes. 

Against his better judgement, Jooheon sets an alarm for 8:30 and goes back to sleep. 

* * *

Jooheon cannot stop yawning. Somehow, the extra sleep he got has only managed to make him more tired. All the way through his animal behaviour lecture Minhyuk had kept nudging him whenever he started to doze off to keep him awake. 

To no one’s surprise, Jooheon didn’t take a single thing in from that entire lecture. In fact, he hasn’t really been focusing on his animal behaviour model ever since they started working on getting everyone’s powers back. 

Fuck, the project. He completely forgot about that. Minhyuk and Changkyun seem to have forgotten about it too, as neither of them have mentioned it in weeks. 

Well, that can wait until they figure out this whole powers situation. That’s the priority right now. 

(Jooheon ignores the deadline that he realises is approaching fast now he’s remembered the project. He desperately ignores it.)

“Have you found anything?” Minhyuk asks. He must’ve noticed that Jooheon’s distracted from reading for more research again. 

“Not yet,” Jooheon replies. “I don’t even know what we’re looking for anymore, honestly.”

“Me neither,” Changkyun agrees. “But I feel like we have to do something. There must be something that can help us.”

After the disappointment that was the other night and thinking they’d fixed the powers only to find out they hadn’t, their whole group had almost decided to give up and let someone else figure it out. 

But, Minhyuk had dreamt again of their celebrations, and it had given everyone enough hope that maybe they can actually figure this out to try again. 

So, here Jooheon, Changkyun and Minhyuk are, going back through all the books they’d read before, double checking to see if there’s anything they might have missed. 

So far, no luck. 

Jooheon kinda feels like it’s pointless to keep doing this, but he doesn’t say anything. Even if it is pointless, after all, at least he feels like he’s  _ trying _ to do something. It’s better than sitting around and doing nothing. 

But still, what could they possibly even find at this point?

As soon as this thought crosses his mind, Changkyun says, “Hey, I think I got something.”

Jooheon looks over at the book that Changkyun’s pointing to. It’s old, much older than most of the other books they’ve read, and those are already extremely old. This book looks like it’s practically falling apart. “Where did you even find that book?” he asks. 

“It was hidden behind a bunch of other books, so I think we missed it last time,” Changkyun says. “It’s interesting, though. It seems to be a diary of sorts.” He pushes the book closer to Minhyuk and Jooheon so they can take a look. 

There’s two long pages of handwritten words, and Jooheon can’t make out a single one of them. “You can read this?”

Changkyun laughs. “I borrow notes from Minhyuk a lot. I got used to terrible handwriting.”

Minhyuk pouts and protests, pulls out his notebook to disprove Changkyun’s words, and then stares at it for a few seconds before finally putting it back away. “Okay. Fair point.”

Changkyun rolls his eyes fondly. “Anyway, this particular one really interested me. It’s talking about how there was some sort of war or something? That was a bit hard to make out, but then it goes on to talk about the dream power phenomenon and how it came about from the children of magic users and people with powers, whatever that means.”

Jooheon frowns. Why does this all sound strangely familiar? He tries to place what it is, but it’s just out of reach, so he decides to let it go for now. It’ll come back to him later probably. 

“So, we have dream powers because of magic? And that’s why we’re not affected by everything that’s going on with everyone else, because our powers are different? Is that what you’re saying?” Minhyuk asks. 

“That’s what it seems to be, yeah.”

It’s interesting, Jooheon can’t deny that, but he’s not sure it brings them any closer to figuring out how to fix things. He doesn’t say this to Changkyun, of course, not wanting to upset him. 

“I’m going to keep reading,” Changkyun says. “Maybe there’ll be something useful in here.”

* * *

Jooheon doesn’t want to look at another book ever again. They’ve spent the majority of the day in the library reading through these books, only to come up with nothing. Changkyun hadn’t found anything further in the book he found, and Jooheon and Minhyuk found nothing either. 

He’s disappointed, really disappointed, but Jooheon doesn’t want to wallow in a bad mood while he’s still spending time with Changkyun and Minhyuk. 

“Maybe we should take a walk to take a break from this,” Minhyuk suggests, having closed the book he was reading. 

Jooheon celebrates internally that he didn’t have to be the one to suggest it. “Please,” he says. “No more books. Ever.”

“I’ll agree with that,” Changkyun jokes. “I feel like I haven’t seen the outside world in decades. 

“We’ve only been in here for—” Minhyuk checks the time on his phone. “—six hours. Jesus christ.”

“Oh, fresh air and sunlight, how I miss you,” Changkyun bemoans dramatically. 

Minhyuk smacks him over the back of the head, but he can’t keep the amused smile off his face. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“Only for you.”

They put away the books and gather up their things and head outside into the cool breeze. There’s no direction to where they decide to walk - they just go where their feet decide to take them. Jooheon walks on one side, Minhyuk in the middle and Changkyun on the other. Minhyuk and Changkyun are holding hands, but Jooheon doesn’t feel left out or like a third wheel with the two of them, even with their subtle displays of affection. He always feels included. 

Minhyuk is telling stories to Jooheon from his and Changkyun’s past - mostly ones where something bad happened to Changkyun and Minhyuk found it amusing - and Changkyun throws in a comment here and there, correcting Minhyuk on small details that he’s mixed up or to protest the story Minhyuk’s telling because he doesn’t want to be embarrassed. 

Jooheon is happy to stay quiet and listen to the stories Minhyuk tells as they walk around campus, and then further towards the huge park nearby. 

“Have I ever told you about the day Changkyun and I finally got together after years of dancing around each other?” Minhyuk asks. 

Jooheon thinks about it and he almost says yes, the airport story, but then he realises that no, Minhyuk didn’t tell him that. He dreamt that. “You didn’t. How did it happen?”

“It was in an airport of all places,” Minhyuk starts, and there’s a fondness to his voice as he speaks. Jooheon isn’t surprised - he’d probably look back on the day he started dating his partner with fondness too. 

But wait. An airport? There’s no way it actually happened in an airport, because Jooheon dreamt that they met in an airport, and there’s no way he could’ve dreamt something that he’s never heard about before. 

“An airport?” Jooheon asks slowly, double checking that he didn’t mishear Minhyuk. 

“Yeah. Weird, right?”

“Yeah, weird,” Jooheon agrees. Now he desperately needs to hear this story, because if Minhyuk tells it the way Jooheon’s afraid he will, then there’s something scary and unknown that Jooheon has to face, and he’s not sure if he can deal with that right now. 

Minhyuk must not sense Jooheon’s sudden change in mood, because he simply continues on as normal. “Anyway, so we were in the airport and I was flying back to Korea after Kyunnie and I finally met in person for the first time. We spent a week together, and it was the best week ever, and I didn’t want to go home and Changkyun didn’t want me to either. Right, baby?”

“Yeah,” Changkyun agrees easily. “I was heartbroken. I finally got you there with me in person and then you had to go and I hated it. God, do you remember that awful bleach blonde hair I had?”

“That wasn’t your best look, I’ll be honest,” Minhyuk jokes. “So anyway, there I am in the terminal with Changkyun  _ right _ there in front of me, and I have to go so I don’t miss my flight. We were both standing there crying and we made this promise to go to uni together.”

“I picked England, as you can tell,” Changkyun adds. 

“So, we say our tear-filled goodbyes and I leave,” Minhyuk continues. “But, then I had this thought that if I was going to finally admit my feelings to Changkyun, it had to be right then and there.”

“I had no idea he was thinking this. I was too busy crying.”

Jooheon feels his stomach sink when he realises that he knows exactly where this story is going, because be dreamt it a few weeks before. So, before Minhyuk is able to continue, Jooheon finishes, “And then you, Minhyuk, dropped your suitcase, ran back to Changkyun and kissed him, and Changkyun was too overwhelmed so he dropped into a crouch, and while you were both on the floor crying Changkyun asked you to be his boyfriend.”

The three of them have stopped in the middle of the park now, and Changkyun and Minhyuk are staring at Jooheon in both awe and confusion. 

No one says a word for a long few minutes. 

Minhyuk is the one who finally breaks the silence. “Jooheon? How did you know that?”

But Jooheon doesn’t want to explain how he knows right now, because somehow he’s still afraid that he’s wrong, that it was just a fluke and his brain somehow dreamt a real situation as a coincidence. A pretty damn big coincidence, but a coincidence nonetheless. 

Then, Jooheon remembers that dream he had the night before he met Changkyun and Minhyuk, the dream when he found out their names, even though he’d never heard them before. 

If Jooheon’s right about what he thinks is happening, that dream will confirm it. 

“The first week of uni,” Jooheon starts, staring at a flower on the ground between them so he doesn’t have to look at Changkyun and Minhyuk’s faces, “did the two of you break into an old building? And open a strange box and it had a key inside?”

Jooheon finally dares to look up, and they look just as confused and shocked as he expected. 

“How did you know we did that?” Changkyun asks. “We never told anyone about that.”

And it’s easy to put into words how he knows that, because the facts are simple - Jooheon dreamt about it. But the weight those words actually carry is much, much deeper, because no one just  _ dreams _ about actual situations that have happened before that they were never told about and weren’t a part of. That doesn’t just happen, not to someone like Jooheon. 

Not to someone without powers. 

But Jooheon can’t delay the inevitable any longer, so he takes a deep breath and finally admits, “I had a dream about both of those situations happening.”

A pause, and then: “You have dream powers, like us.” Minhyuk says it like it’s just that easy, like Jooheon hasn’t spent his entire life feeling like an outcast, being one of the rare few people in the world without powers, only to discover that he does, in fact, have powers. 

But it just makes no sense. How can Jooheon have powers and not have realised? He was tested many, many times. How can it have been missed for all these years?

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Jooheon says, and then a dizziness overcomes him and he falls towards the floor, Minhyuk and Changkyun both catching him and helping to lower him gently. 

Changkyun’s hands are cupping his face as he asks, “Heonie? You okay?”

Jooheon nods. “I just— How is this possible?”

“My powers never showed up on any tests either,” Minhyuk says quietly. “I was going to tell you before, but you seemed so set on not having powers I was worried I’d hurt you more.”

Jooheon looks from Changkyun to Minhyuk and back again, his eyes flicking between the both of them. “I must dream of the past then,” he says. “I always have these super weird dreams about this group of people - magic users, I think - and they talk about the war and how they’re going to be wiped out.”

“That lines up with the books we’ve read,” Changkyun says. 

“Is there anything else you’ve dreamt about?” Minhyuk asks. “Anything that can help us figure this out?”

Jooheon tries to think back over all the dreams he’s had recently, ever since university started and powers were affected. Nothing about any of them stands out except—

“Oh my god,” Jooheon mutters, dropping his head into his hands. 

“What? What is it?” Changkyun asks. “Have you figured it out?”

“No. I— Oh my god.” 

“Jooheon, tell us,” Minhyuk says. 

Jooheon looks up at both of them, wide-eyed. “The dream I had last night. It’s true.”

Changkyun and Minhyuk are looking back at Jooheon, patiently waiting for him to explain what he’s talking about. 

But how can Jooheon explain? How can he explain that somehow he managed to listen in to their conversation about _ him,  _ about their feelings for  _ him? _

He feels guilty all of a sudden, like he’s spied on them when he isn’t supposed to, even though it isn’t his fault. 

Realisation dawns over Changkyun’s face. “You know about our conversation the other day.”

Minhyuk, who clearly hasn’t caught on just yet, looks between Changkyun and Jooheon frowning. “What? Which conversation?”

Changkyun doesn’t reply to Minhyuk, his gaze focused steadily on Jooheon. “Jooheon?”

“I know,” Jooheon says simply, confirming Changkyun’s suspicions. “And I do, too.”

“You do?”

Jooheon nods, and a smile breaks out over his face, one that he can’t hold back. “I do.”

“Okay, someone explain to me what’s going on,” Minhyuk says, exasperated, and throws his hands up. 

“Minhyuk,” Jooheon whispers, turning his attention away from Changkyun, “kiss me.”

Minhyuk blinks once. Twice. “Huh?”

“You heard the man,” Changkyun says, smiling. “Kiss him.”

Minhyuk looks confused for a second longer, before his eyes widen a fraction and then a smile breaks out over his face. He leans forward, cups Jooheon’s cheeks and plants a kiss on his lips with a dramatic ‘muah’. 

Jooheon rolls his eyes, but he can’t keep the smile off his face. “What now, then?”

“I say we skip the rest of the day, go home and celebrate you finding out you have powers,” Changkyun says. 

“I meant for us, silly,” Jooheon corrects, “but that sounds like a good plan. I might need a nap, though. I’m exhausted.”

“Well, if we all like each other, we can give a relationship a try?” Changkyun suggests. There’s still hesitation in his voice, and he’s looking at Minhyuk as he says it. 

“If you’re worrying about me, Kyunnie,” Minhyuk says, “you know I’m as for this as you are. It’s up to Jooheon.”

“We’ll probably have to discuss it more, but there’s nothing I’d want more than to be with the two of you,” Jooheon says. “Now, can we get off this grass and go back to mine? I miss my bed.”

* * *

After Jooheon’s nap (with his  _ boyfriends _ \- he can call them that now) he feels a lot more awake. He also feels happy - really happy, considering how he’s been feeling for the past few weeks. With the disappointment of not saving everyone’s powers, none of his friends have been in a great mood since, but now he feels like his mood is on the rise. And with that, his hope that maybe they can fix things returns. 

So, while Changkyun and Minhyuk are still sleeping, Jooheon thinks back over his dreams (now that he knows his dreams are actually  _ real _ events that have happened) and tries to figure out if there’s any details in there that he might have missed. 

The dreams about those strange men surrounding the fire have always been rather confusing and vague, but Jooheon really tries to examine all of them and figure out anything that can help, but he comes up blank. 

He’s sure there’s a purpose to these dreams - Changkyun and Minhyuk have said all of the dreams they have have some meaning to them personally - but he can’t quite figure out what it is. 

There’s also his dreams about Changkyun and Minhyuk, but he’s pretty sure the purpose of those was regarding his relationship with them, not anything to do with powers. 

Jooheon groans, frustrated. He feels like there’s something  _ there, _ something important that he’s missing, and he can’t figure out what it is. 

Minhyuk stirs beside him and when his eyes open and meet Jooheon’s, a smile breaks out over his face. “Good morning, beautiful.”

“It’s—” Jooheon checks the time on the clock “—7pm. Not exactly morning, is it?”

Changkyun, who still has his eyes closed and Jooheon was convinced was still asleep, says, “Time is an illusion.”

“If time is an illusion, does that mean we don’t have to get out of bed again?” Jooheon asks, an eyebrow raised. 

“Yes, it does,” Minhyuk says. “Let’s just stay in bed together. Our first proper cuddle session as boyfriends.”

Jooheon finds himself blushing at Minhyuk’s words. He puts it down to this just being something new, because he really doesn’t want to be constantly finding himself bright pink whenever Minhyuk or Changkyun mention them being boyfriends forever - that would be rather embarrassing. 

Their cuddle session doesn’t even get to begin before there’s a knock on Jooheon’s bedroom door. 

“Come in,” Jooheon calls. 

Kihyun walks in. “Okay, so I spent all day doing more research and I’m getting so sick of doing it and finding nothing, but I think maybe there’s something— Oh, hi, Minhyuk. Hi, Changkyun.”

“Hey, Kihyun,” Minhyuk and Changkyun chorus together. 

Kihyun looks between the three of them and then says, “Are you—?” He gestures with his hand, as if that means anything. 

“Are we gay?” Changkyun asks teasingly. “Because the answer to that is yes.”

Kihyun glares at Changkyun as if he’s willing him to disappear on the spot. (He probably is.) He looks to Jooheon instead. 

“We’re together now, yeah,” Jooheon says to save Kihyun from another ridiculous answer - Minhyuk and Changkyun have that covered all on their own. 

“Oh, thank god. I couldn’t take watching you guys all staring at each other with heart eyes anymore. It was killing me,” Kihyun bemoans. “Anyway, what was I saying?”

“About research,” Jooheon supplies. 

“Oh, yeah. I maybe found something, but I need to look into it more,” Kihyun says. “By the way, Hyungwon’s coming over. Want to order in with us?”

Jooheon looks back at Minhyuk and Changkyun who nod eagerly. “Sure, why not? We should invite Hoseok and Hyunwoo over too, since most of us are here already.”

“I’ll go text them. We’ll order when they turn up, yeah?”

Jooheon nods. “Sure.”

After Kihyun leaves, he says to Changkyun and Minhyuk, “There goes cuddle time, then.”

“We can cuddle later,” Minhyuk promises, “but I’m so hungry, so I can’t wait for this food.”

* * *

Hyungwon, Hyunwoo and Hoseok arrive and they put in their orders for food. While they wait, they catch up on their lives recently, including Jooheon, Minhyuk and Changkyun telling the others about their new relationship, as well as the discovery that Jooheon  _ does _ have powers, both of which come with a lot of congratulations and hugs. 

After the food has arrived and been consumed, Kihyun decides they might as well play a game, but he isn’t sure which one to pick. 

“We should do seven minutes in heaven,” Changkyun suggests with a cheeky grin on his face. 

“All of us are in relationships already,” Hyungwon points out. “And no offence, but I barely want to kiss Kihyun, let alone the rest of you.”

“You’re a lying liar who lies,” Kihyun says and smacks Hyungwon over the back of the head. “Changkyun, are you trying to find an excuse to make out with one of your boyfriends in my closet?”

“Yes,” Changkyun replies seriously. “If I don’t get kisses, I’ll shrivel up and die.”

Minhyuk and Jooheon make eye contact behind Changkyun’s head and then at the same time they lean in and both plant kisses on his cheeks at once. 

Changkyun breaks out in a grin and says, “Now I can live for another few minutes at least.”

“You’re so dramatic,” Hoseok comments, but he’s clearly amused by his antics. 

“Any other game suggestions?” Kihyun asks, reminding everyone of why this conversation started in the first place. 

“Uno?” Hyunwoo suggests. “That’s a classic.”

“Minhyuk always cheats on Uno and looks at everyone’s cards,” Changkyun complains. 

“Hyungwon does too,” Jooheon says. “Kihyun always lets him cheat because he’s whipped.”

Kihyun glares at Jooheon, but there’s pink across his cheeks. “I don’t do that.”

“You do,” Hyungwon says and pats him on the knee, “but I appreciate it.”

Jooheon tries to think of the games they have stored away in the cupboard. “Logo Game?”

“Last time we played that you didn’t speak to me for three days,” Kihyun says with a sigh. 

Jooheon forgot about that, but it’s true. He does get quite competitive during games. “Oh, yeah. Oops.”

More and more suggestions are thrown out, all of which get turned down by someone else for one reason or another, and they end up spending so long trying to decide on a game, that they end up not even deciding on one at all before Hyunwoo and Hoseok have to leave because they have plans to talk to Hyunwoo’s parents before they head off to work. (Time differences really are a pain.) 

After Hyunwoo and Hoseok leave, Kihyun and Hyungwon say goodnight and retreat to Kihyun’s room for the night leaving Jooheon, Changkyun and Minhyuk alone once again. 

“Is now cuddle time?” Changkyun asks. 

Jooheon grins. “It is. Come on.”

They end up all getting ready for bed together (three people attempting to brush their teeth around one sink, especially when two of those people are having to use their fingers because Jooheon can’t find any spare toothbrushes isn’t ideal, but somehow they make it work) and Jooheon has to lend both of them some of his clothes to sleep in, which makes him feel all warm inside to see his boyfriends wearing his clothes. 

They climb into bed, and fitting three people into one bed is never an easy feat, but they know how to make it work from their previous experiences of sharing a bed. 

Three pairs of legs are tangled together, and Jooheon ends up in the middle with Changkyun and Minhyuk both resting their heads on his chest. Occasionally, one of them will lean forward, giggle and peck the other’s lips, and Jooheon finds it so endearing to watch that he doesn’t even mind that he’s not the one getting any kisses. 

Eventually, when their three bodies are so entwined and tangled up together that it’s impossible to tell where one of them ends and another starts, Changkyun and Minhyuk’s eyes slip closed and their breathing evens out as they fall asleep. 

Jooheon takes slightly longer to fall asleep, too busy smiling at how adorable Changkyun and Minhyuk look to the point his cheeks hurt to get any rest. 

He falls asleep eventually, and for once, it’s a dreamless night for all of them. 


	8. Chapter 8

_ “It’s almost the end,” says the same man that appears to be the leader of the group of men.  _

_ The seven of them are once again in the same field. The sky is dark with night and a small fire burns between them. It’s hard to tell what day it is - it could be the same day as every other day, if it weren’t for the context clues from the conversation.  _

_ “We should prepare the curse,” another man says, determined. He stands, holds out a wooden box covered in strange markings.  _

_ “Is it a good idea to do this?” a different man asks. “What if it falls into the wrong hands?” _

_ “It’ll only affect those who descend from those who are destroying magic,” the leader promises. “No one will be hurt, but they will lose their so called ‘powers’. They can return to being human as they should be.” _

_ “What’s the catch?” one man asks. “We cannot set a curse without a clause for it to be broken.” _

_ The leader smiles at this. “Once our story is known, once the true story of the magic users has been told and everyone knows where science took their ideas from and about the great war, then they can have their powers. Are we all in agreement?” _

_ Nods come from all around the small circle, and thus the curse is to be created.  _

_ The small box is placed down in the centre of the seven of them, next to the burning fire, and they gather around it in a circle. Their hands are joined together, and then they start chanting in an unknown language.  _

_ Magic fills the air. It can’t be seen, but it can be felt, and during this moment the magic is felt more strongly than it ever has been before.  _

_ The seven of them combine their powers to create the curse and once it has been completed and their chanting finishes, the box snaps shut, with a small key locked inside it.  _

_ “What’s with the key?” one of them asks.  _

_ The leader laughs. “My own personal joke. Whoever opens it and realises that they’ve had a curse put on them will probably assume they need the key to save themselves.” _

_ One of the men rolls his eyes. “You’re evil, you know that?” _

_ “Oh, I do.” _

* * *

Jooheon wakes with a start. He shoots up in bed, which jostles Changkyun and Minhyuk and wakes them up too. He looks back at them with wide eyes as they both blink blearily at him. 

“What happened?” Changkyun asks, stifling a yawn afterwards. 

“I know how to fix everyone’s powers.”

This makes Minhyuk shoot up into a seated position too. “Wait, you do? How? Did you have a dream about it?”

“Yeah,” Jooheon says, “and you two idiots are the ones who released the curse.”

Two frowning faces stare at him. 

“Us?” Changkyun asks. “How?”

“That box you opened when you snuck into the basement at the start of the year,” Jooheon explains. “It had a curse in it.”

“They put a  _ curse  _ in a  _ box?” _ Changkyun exclaims. “That’s kinda boring. Wait - who put this curse in there?”

“The magic users,” Jooheon says. 

“The key,” Minhyuk says suddenly. To Changkyun he says, “You kept it, didn’t you?”

Changkyun nods. “It’s in one of my drawers back home. I can get it later.”

“We don’t need the key,” Jooheon says. “That was a trick.”

Changkyun frowns at him. “Who would play a trick like that?”

Jooheon stares blankly at him. 

“What?” Changkyun asks. 

“He means that it’s something you would do,” Minhyuk supplies with a grin. 

Changkyun glares at both of them. “Meanies. Anyway, back to what we were talking about. How do we fix the curse if it’s not the key?”

“The magic users want their story to be known,” Jooheon says. “Whatever that means.”

“Well what is their story?” Minhyuk asks. “You’re the one with the most knowledge out of all of us.”

Jooheon thinks back over his dreams from the past few months as well as the other tidbits of information he’s gathered from his research as well as his friends’ research. After he puts it all together in his mind, he explains it to Changkyun and Minhyuk. 

“There wasn’t always powers as we know them. There just used to be magic users - people who basically had unlimited powers rather than the single powers as we know them. People were jealous of these magic users, so they used science to create powers for humans, except it didn’t quite work out as they wanted because it wasn’t overall powers, it was one specific power people ended up with. 

“Magic users weren’t happy with this, and they ended up going to war with humans and eventually lost and were wiped out.”

“And the curse was to stop people with powers from using them?” Minhyuk asks. 

Jooheon nods. 

“Then why weren’t us three affected?”

Jooheon racks his brain, knowing the information is stored in there somewhere, and he finds the answer he’s looking for. “We descend from magic users. That’s why we have dream powers, I guess. Something to do with magic.” It’s not the most elaborate of explanations, but Jooheon can’t claim he has all of the intricate details and knowledge down. He just knows the basics from what he’s learnt from his dreams as well as the research they’ve done. 

“How do we share their story, then, and break the curse?” Changkyun asks. 

Jooheon makes eye contact with Minhyuk, and he knows they’re on the same page with their thoughts. The two of them jump up out of bed and go running to Kihyun’s room, yelling for Hyungwon as they go. 

A rather unhappy looking Hyungwon answers the door to them. He looks extremely disheveled and Jooheon can only assume he’s just been woken up by the pair of them. 

“What do you want?” Hyungwon asks unhappily. “It’s ass o’clock in the morning.”

Jooheon looks towards the window and notices that it is in fact still dark outside, and therefore probably too early for him to be awake, and  _ definitely _ too early for Hyungwon to be awake. 

“Sorry for waking you but, well, we kinda figured out how to fix everyone’s powers and it requires your assistance,” Jooheon says. 

“Jooheon figured it out,” Minhyuk amends. “I’m just here for the ride.”

Hyungwon stares at them and blinks slowly as if he’s processing the information. Then, after a few long seconds, he says, “Can I help you when I’m actually feeling awake? I can’t function right now.”

Jooheon nods. “Sure, sure. Go back to sleep. We’ll come bother you again when the sun is finally up.”

“Long after the sun is finally up,” Hyungwon says threateningly. 

Jooheon holds his hands up in surrender. “Yes, sure. We’re leaving now.” He grabs Minhyuk’s hand and pulls him back to his bedroom where Changkyun is sitting in bed waiting for them. 

“Well?” he asks. “What was that about?”

“Hyungwon works for the uni newspaper,” Jooheon reminds him, “so if we want the story out there, we get him to publish it.”

“Huh. Smart. How come I never knew he was part of the newspaper, though?”

“I mean, does anyone  _ actually _ read the newspaper?” Minhyuk jokes. 

“I do,” Jooheon admits sheepishly. “I like supporting my friends.”

Minhyuk pinches Jooheon’s cheeks and coos loudly. “You’re adorable.”

Jooheon rolls his eyes when Minhyuk refuses to let go of his face. “Is this what I have to look forward to now we’re dating? Constant cheek pinching.”

“Trust me,” Changkyun says, “it never gets any better feeling.”

“Hey, you said you don’t mind my cheek pinching,” Minhyuk complains. 

“I don’t because you’re you, but that doesn’t stop it being kinda painful.”

Minhyuk lets go of Jooheon’s cheeks and starts pouting, which Jooheon kisses away. Minhyuk smiles brightly at this. 

“Wow, kisses sure do solve everything, huh?”

Minhyuk nods enthusiastically. “Nothing in the world beats kisses.”

Jooheon silently vows to give Minhyuk (and Changkyun) all of the kisses he could possibly provide, and then some. 

* * *

Hours later when Hyungwon finally emerges from Kihyun’s room, Jooheon, Minhyuk and Changkyun pounce on him immediately. 

Hyungwon sits down in the living room with them after he asks Kihyun to make him a coffee, which he happily heads off to do. 

“So, explain it to me,” Hyungwon requests. 

Changkyun and Minhyuk look to Jooheon as he’s the one who figured everything out. 

Jooheon explains the story of the magic users to Hyungwon as he did to Minhyuk and Changkyun earlier. Then, he adds, “We need you to write all this in the newspaper and publish it so that the truth is spread around and then everyone’s powers will come back.”

Hyungwon stares at him unmoving for a moment. “I think you’re overestimating how many people actually read the uni newspaper.”

“Please, Hyungwon,” Jooheon begs. “Don’t you want your power back?”

Hyungwon sighs, but then relents. “I’ll publish it. No promises on it working, though. Text me over a written copy of what you told me because I won’t remember any of that and I’ll fix it up and get it published.”

“Thanks, Hyungwon. When will it be published then?”

“Friday,” Hyungwon replies. 

Jooheon groans. “That’s almost an entire week to wait.”

“You have your power still,” Hyungwon points out. “What does it matter if you have to wait?”

“Because I’m worried I’m wrong and we’ll anticipate this all week only for it to not work,” Jooheon admits quietly. 

“Hey, listen, if anyone’s going to figure this out, it’ll be you,” Hyungwon says, patting Jooheon on the knee comfortingly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go figure out if my boyfriend got sucked into the coffee machine or something.”

After Hyungwon leaves, Minhyuk makes a strange noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh. “It’s so weird to hear him refer to Kihyun as his boyfriend still. Those two dating makes so much sense yet no sense at all,” he says. 

Jooheon laughs and nods in agreement. “Tell me about it. I’ve known them both for years and it shocked the hell out of me when I found out.”

“I think they’re kinda cute,” Changkyun says quietly. “Not as cute as us, though.”

“Hey, I heard that!” Kihyun yells from the kitchen. 

The three of them burst into laughter at that. 

Jooheon feels himself turn serious for a moment. “Thank you both,” he says. 

“What for?” Minhyuk asks. 

Jooheon smiles a small smile. “For believing me without questions as to what’s going on.”

Changkyun cuddles up against his side and kisses Jooheon’s cheek. “It’s like Hyungwon said, if anyone was going to figure this out it’d be you. We have no reason  _ not _ to believe you.”

“And if I’m wrong?” Jooheon asks quietly, voicing his fears to them. 

“Then your dreams lied to you and we’ll figure something else out,” Minhyuk reassures, squeezing Jooheon’s thigh. “Stop worrying so much. Things will work out just fine.”

Jooheon can’t really stop himself worrying - that’s just who he is, a worrier - but he’ll try his best for Changkyun and Minhyuk. 

“You know, I kinda wanna go back to bed and sleep,” Changkyun says. “Cuddles?”

Minhyuk and Jooheon agree, of course, and so the three of them return to Jooheon’s room to have cuddles as Changkyun wants. 

* * *

“Where are we going?” Jooheon asks. He’d been rather rudely awoken half an hour ago by Changkyun prodding his cheeks. He’s still not quite sure how Changkyun got in, considering he doesn’t have a key to Jooheon’s flat and Kihyun wasn’t even home to let Changkyun inside. (Although, Minhyuk’s mentioned Changkyun’s really good lock picking habits before, which Jooheon had assumed was a joke, but now he’s rethinking that.)

After being woken up, Changkyun forced Jooheon into the shower and then into his clothes before dragging him outside, claiming there’s somewhere they need to go, but so far hasn’t told Jooheon a damn thing about  _ where.  _

“To see Minhyuk,” Changkyun answers this time, which still tells Jooheon nothing, but it’s more of an answer than he’s been given previously. 

Jooheon’s been trying to figure out where Changkyun is taking him, but despite living in this city for years, Jooheon can’t say he’s actually all that familiar with it. He knows the super local places - anywhere within about a five minute walk of campus or his flat - but other than that he’s pretty much clueless. 

Which doesn’t really help when they’ve been walking for twenty minutes already, so Jooheon literally hasn’t got a clue where they are or where they could be going. 

Knowing that Changkyun’s not going to give Jooheon any answers, he gives up trying and just follows along to wherever they’re going with the hope that it won’t take much longer. 

They end up walking through the woods, which only serves to confuse Jooheon further, but when they make it out of the trees on the other side, the sight Jooheon sees brings a smile to his face. 

In the middle of a field just up ahead of them is Minhyuk sitting on a stereotypical picnic blanket - red and white checkered. He even has a proper wicker basket set out beside him, too. 

Jooheon speed walks up to Minhyuk, Changkyun being dragged along with him where their hands are joined, and plops himself down on the blanket with an excited, “We’re having a picnic?”

“A picnic date,” Minhyuk corrects. 

“We wanted to make our first proper date together beautifully stereotypical, so this is what we came up with,” Changkyun says. 

Jooheon kisses them both in thanks, unable to keep the smile off his face. “You two are the best boyfriends ever.”

“We know,” Changkyun brags. 

Minhyuk opens up the wicker basket and produces paper plates for each of them, as well as a handful of napkins. There’s a Capri Sun for each of them, too, because what picnic is complete without a Capri Sun?

As for the food, there’s all the typical food that one might find on a picnic - sandwiches cut into fingers, Scotch eggs, mini chicken satay skewers, mini sausage rolls, and a bunch of different flavoured packets of crisps. 

Jooheon hasn’t even tried the food yet, but he already thinks this is the best date ever. 

“We asked Kihyun what you normally take on a picnic over here,” Minhyuk explains, “so I hope we got it right.”

“It’s perfect,” Jooheon says, remembering back to when he first moved from South Korea to England and Kihyun decided to take him out on a picnic because it was one of those very rare sunny days that you really have to make the most of when they come around. Everything Minhyuk and Changkyun have bought brings him the nostalgia of that first day here, which he wonders if Minhyuk and Changkyun found out about through Kihyun too. 

“Let’s eat,” Changkyun says. “I’m starving.”

So, they dig into the food. Jooheon loads up his plate with at least one of everything, excited to try all the food. 

“Thank you guys so much for doing this for me, really,” Jooheon says after a few bites of his food. He feels overcome with his emotions and feelings for the two of them. 

“Don’t start crying or something,” Changkyun warns. “Minhyuk’s a sympathetic crier.”

“Shut up, no I’m not,” Minhyuk denies, but they all know it’s the truth. “But don’t thank us, baby. This is for all of us. A perfect first date.”

Right then, a wasp comes buzzing over to them, which makes the perfect first date just a little less perfect, but it’s perfectly imperfect, which is the best way to be. 

The food is devoured quickly, because food never lasts long around the three of them, as if it’s a race to eat as much as possible as quickly as possible. 

Jooheon leans back against Minhyuk, sitting between his legs, and Changkyun is lying down beside them. And Jooheon feels completely and utterly content where he is right now. 

The sky above is a bright blue without a cloud to be seen - rather unusual for this time of year - and there’s few other people around. 

“I’m so happy I met both of you,” Jooheon says. He really is feeling overemotional today. Maybe it’s the fact he got so rudely woken up and went to sleep kinda late last night. 

“You’re so sappy,” Changkyun says, but there’s a smile on his face. He leans over to kiss Jooheon, cupping his cheek gently. 

Minhyuk squeezes Jooheon’s waist and kisses the top of his head. “We’re happy we met you too.”

Jooheon goes to reply, say something else incredibly sappy, but a huge yawn is what comes out instead. “God, I am so tired.”

“Nap here. I don’t mind you sleeping on me,” Minhyuk says. 

“Not much of a date if I sleep through it, is it?”

“Minhyuk and I often have dates where we just nap together,” Changkyun says. “I think it’s one of the best dates to have.”

Even though napping dates do sound amazing and Jooheon looks forward to them in the future, he won’t let himself sleep through his  _ first _ date with his boyfriends. He’s going to make sure he remembers every single second of it. 

“There’s something I’ve wondered for a while,” Jooheon says suddenly. “What the fuck were you two doing in that basement when you opened that box?” It’s a question that’s played on his mind ever since the dream, even though he used to believe it was just a dream, he still wondered about the reasonings, and ever since he discovered that he has dream powers, it’s played on his mind even more. 

Changkyun laughs and shakes his head. “It was basically because of a story we overheard. Someone said that there’s a bunch of stolen rare artefacts hidden in the basement of the old building and supposedly also a chest of gold taken from pirates,” Changkyun explains. 

“So, how’d you get the key?”

“Well, that I kinda stole from my lecturer when he wasn’t looking,” Changkyun says sheepishly. 

Jooheon can only sigh. Of course that’s what he did. 

“I returned them eventually.”

“So, did you find the pirate’s treasure?” Jooheon asks. 

“Nope. All we found was that damn box with it’s key inside. Everything else was a load of shit. ‘Rare artefacts’ my ass.”

Jooheon chuckles. “That’s a disappointing end to that story.”

“Hey, be glad we opened that box. We bonded over everything that stemmed from it,” Minhyuk defends. 

Jooheon smiles. “I know. I’m very glad you two are idiots who do ridiculous things.”

“You can be our third idiot who does ridiculous things along with us,” Changkyun says. 

Jooheon finds he likes the sound of that. 

* * *

By Thursday evening, Jooheon’s anxiety has only increased tenfold. Hyungwon wrote out the article out and had Jooheon proofread it to approve it yesterday, and now it’s just a waiting game for the newspaper to finally be published. 

It goes live at 9am on Fridays, so a little over 12 hours left to wait, and Jooheon’s getting antsy. 

“Can you sit down?” Minhyuk asks after Jooheon starts pacing around the room again. 

“I can’t help it,” Jooheon says as he walks the length of the room over and over - from the kitchen door to the hallway door and back again. 

Changkyun, who’s sitting on Minhyuk’s lap on the sofa, lets out an exasperated sigh. “It’s not gonna come any faster by walking around the room.”

Jooheon knows his pacing is bothering them and making them anxious - he feels the same way when he sees someone else pacing - but he just can’t stop himself from doing it. 

But, Jooheon forces himself to sit down beside his boyfriends. His leg won’t stop bouncing, but it’s better than pacing. Probably. 

(He wonders how long he’ll last this time before he has to get back up again. He made it ten minutes the last time he sat down, so as long as he beats that it’s an achievement.)

Changkyun wraps his arms around Jooheon and pulls him close. “If you get up again I will destroy you,” he whispers threateningly into Jooheon’s ear. 

Well, except, it’s Changkyun, so the words don’t come across as all that threatening at all, because he’s all talk, no action. 

With Minhyuk, however, Jooheon might believe in his threats. Just not Changkyun’s. 

“Tell us why you’re so worried,” Minhyuk says. “So we can help.”

Jooheon sighs and tries to formulate his thoughts into words. “I’m worried that I’m wrong. I’m worried that somehow my dreams are just that - dreams - and they don’t really mean anything and I’ve all fooled you into believing me when I don’t really have powers.”

“You haven’t,” Changkyun promises. “I mean, you literally knew moments that happened between Minhyuk and I that we hadn’t told you and you definitely weren’t present for.”

Jooheon knows that, but that doesn’t stop his brain from trying to convince him that it isn’t the case. It’s probably just because he spent his entire life thinking he was powerless, and now that he’s found out he’s not, he can’t quite believe it. 

“If you’re wrong, which I don’t think you are, what does it even matter?” Minhyuk asks. “What’s so bad about being wrong?”

The question makes Jooheon really consider what it is that’s really making him so worried, because he hadn’t really stopped to consider why he’s feeling the way he is. 

“I don’t want to be a disappointment,” Jooheon finally decides on. “I don’t want to let anyone - especially you two - down.”

“You could never let us down,” Changkyun says seriously, cupping Jooheon’s cheeks to look into his eyes. “Never ever.”

Jooheon manages a smile. “Okay, I believe you,” he says. 

Changkyun grins triumphantly. “Will you stop pacing now?”

Jooheon laughs and nods. “Yes, I’ll stop pacing.”

“You know, I’m kinda hungry,” Minhyuk says suddenly. “Can we order food?”

“I have, like, no money left because I’ve spent all of this month’s allowance on takeaway,” Jooheon complains. 

“My treat,” Minhyuk offers, which is an almost impossible offer to turn down. 

“Okay, but I’m getting the next one,” Jooheon insists. As much as he appreciates Minhyuk (and Changkyun) spoiling him and buying him things, he doesn’t want to feel indebted, even though neither of them feel that he should be, so he always makes sure to promise to make it up to them. 

“No, I’m getting the next one,” Changkyun says, because he's Changkyun and he likes to argue for the sake of it. 

Jooheon doesn’t give in to Changkyun’s bait. Instead he asks Minhyuk, “What are we having, then?”

And Minhyuk being Minhyuk replies, “Pizza.”

There are two simultaneous groans in response. 

“Hey, pizza’s good,” Minhyuk insists. 

“We  _ always _ get pizza,” Changkyun complains, flopping his body against Minhyuk. “I want something else for once.”

“Like what?”

“Anything but pizza. Literally anything.”

Jooheon laughs and shakes his head. “As much as I’m not feeling up to pizza again, that’s not really a proper answer, Kyunnie.”

Changkyun pouts. “You both suck and I hate you.”

“You can’t always have your way,” Minhyuk says. 

An hour later, the three of them have their curries laid out on the table in front of them ready to eat, and Changkyun looks incredibly pleased with himself. 

* * *

The seconds seem to tick by slowly. Jooheon knows that watching the clock is only making time seem to pass slower, but he just can’t stop looking. He’s sitting alone in the living room, Changkyun and Minhyuk both having gone to the lectures they have this morning and Kihyun’s god knows where, probably doing a shop or something. 

Jooheon doesn’t know why he’s anticipating the release of the newspaper so much - it’s not like the second it comes out everyone will get their powers back. 

The clock ticks over to 9:00 and Jooheon can’t keep still. He quickly refreshes the page and opens up the newspaper and there it is, on the front page - the story about what truly happened all of those years ago. 

Jooheon finds himself grinning, because he might’ve finally done it. Things might finally be fixed, and he really can’t believe it. 

Sure, he still needs to wait for confirmation from his friends, but it finally feels real now. It feels like things truly are looking up. 

Now, Jooheon should probably get ready for his own lecture. 

* * *

The day passes by slowly, and Jooheon has so much last minute work to do for his afternoon lectures that he doesn’t even get a chance to spend time with his boyfriends or any of his friends. 

But, come evening, Jooheon’s on his way over to Hoseok and Hyunwoo’s flat so that their group can meet up and test their powers and hopefully celebrate. 

Jooheon’s already heard from Minhyuk that Hyunwoo’s powers seem to be back, but Jooheon needs to see it with his own eyes before he really lets himself believe it. 

When Jooheon arrives, he turns out to be the last person to show up. 

“Wow, take your time much?” Minhyuk jokes when Jooheon joins them all in the living room, but then gives Jooheon a kiss. 

Jooheon kisses Changkyun quickly too, then sits down on the free beanbag. 

“So, are we celebrating?” Jooheon dares to ask. 

There are smiles all around, and that’s the only answer he needs. 

“Hey, Jooheon,” Kihyun says, “will you go get me a beer from the fridge?”

Despite not wanting to, Jooheon does exactly as Kihyun says, and he finds that he can’t even be mad about it, because feeling Kihyun’s persuasion working on him once again only brings him happiness. 

Jooheon doesn’t even get a chance to hand the beer over to Kihyun himself, because it slips out of his hand and zooms across the room to Kihyun while Hyunwoo grins. 

“The first time around,” Hyungwon starts, barely holding back his laughter, “you fell over, Jooheon.”

Jooheon glares at Hyungwon. “At least you changed the timeline, I guess.”

Hyungwon’s still laughing by himself, having been the only one who witnessed Jooheon’s apparent fall. 

With three powers now proven to still be working, that only leaves one. 

“I’d show off too,” Hoseok says, “but I don’t want anyone to injure themselves.”

“Damn, I should’ve left the timeline as is. Then you would’ve had to heal Jooheon,” Hyungwon says, before he starts laughing again. 

Jooheon rolls his eyes. “Give it a rest, dumbass.” He rejoins Changkyun and Minhyuk on the beanbags, feeling ridiculous for still being standing around. “So, it worked then? Everyone’s back to normal?” He lets the excitement seep into his voice. 

He did it. He really did it. He figured out the problem and got everyone’s powers back. 

“All back to normal,” Hyunwoo says with a grin. “We have two things to celebrate tonight, then?”

“Is it someone's birthday and I don’t know?” Jooheon asks worriedly. He’s never been the best with remembering dates. 

“He means celebrating that you’ve joined the powers club, baby,” Minhyuk says. 

“Oh,” is all Jooheon says, feeling dumb. 

“To be honest, I had no clue what he was getting at either,” Changkyun whispers to him. 

Jooheon has no idea if it’s actually true, but he appreciates Changkyun saying it all the same. 

“I’ve gotta be honest,” Hyungwon says, “I think I’m too tired for a party.” He adds a fake yawn at the end to emphasise his point. 

“Oh, shut up,” Kihyun says. “You literally slept for 12 hours last night.”

_ “Twelve?” _ Changkyun exclaims. “What the fuck?”

“Fuck you, Kihyun,” Hyungwon says. 

When the conversation changes to what they’re going to do for the party and Hyungwon thinks no one is looking, he kisses Kihyun’s cheek and squeezes his hand. 

Jooheon smiles as he spots them. 

“Can we finally play seven minutes in heaven?” Changkyun asks. “I wanna play.”

Minhyuk told Jooheon that Changkyun only asks to play the game so he can make obscene noises in the closet to freak everyone out, and Jooheon lowkey wants someone to finally agree to see how hilarious it is. 

“We can play a different version,” Kihyun offers. 

“What’s that?”

“We lock you in a closet alone,” Kihyun says with a grin. 

Changkyun whines and complains while everyone else bursts into laughter. 

He needs kisses to stop his whining, because of course he does. He’s Changkyun. 

“I think it’s time, boys,” Kihyun says suddenly. 

There’s murmurs of confusion as he disappears out of the room, everyone looking around at each other wondering what he’s referring to. 

Then, Kihyun returns with a bottle of champagne, and it all suddenly makes sense. 

“Where did you even get that?” Hoseok asks. “We definitely didn’t have that before.”

“I snuck it in here as a surprise,” Kihyun says as if it’s a regular occurrence for him to be sneaking bottles of champagne into people’s flats. 

“Don’t get my floors sticky,” Hyunwoo warns. “I cleaned today.”

So, Kihyun carefully opens the bottle so that it doesn’t explode everywhere, which spoils the fun of having champagne a little bit, and then pours everyone a glass. 

Minhyuk holds his glass in the air and says, “To us. Cheers!”

A chorus of “Cheers” follows, and they all take a sip. 

Jooheon isn’t the biggest fan of champagne, so he only takes a sip of it before putting the glass down and steals the unopened beer that Kihyun’s abandoned. To be fair, Jooheon is the one that got it from the fridge, so he thinks he can make claim to it. 

Seeing his friends all happy and smiling and enjoying themselves brings a smile to Jooheon’s face. He still can’t quite believe that they actually did it, that they managed to actually figure things out and get everyone’s powers restored, as well as share the true story of his distant ancestors. 

When Jooheon started this year of university, he didn’t expect all that much. He expected it to be another regular year where he spends time with his two friends, sometimes shows up to his lectures and wastes far too much time on Netflix and YouTube when he should be doing other things. 

Instead, he made some wonderful friends, including now dating two of the best people in the world, discovered that he isn’t in fact powerless like he thought for so long, and managed to have a pretty interesting adventure solving the mystery of people losing their powers. 

All in all, it’s been a pretty eventful and happiness filled year so far, and he’s still got a whole lot longer to go. But with his best friends and his boyfriends at his side, he knows that the rest of his university career will be a good one, full of laughter and smiles all around. 

Jooheon sips at his beer to hide his smile and feels the warmth of happiness fill him inside. 

His life is the best it could possibly be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> icb its finally over :(( thank u all so much for sticking w me and my slow updates and i hope youve all enjoyed reading this fic as much as ive enjoyed writing it!!!

**Author's Note:**

> kudos n comments appreciated :3
> 
> twitter: [@changkihyks](http://twitter.com/changkihyks/)  
cc: [changkihyks](https://curiouscat.me/changkihyks?t=1559413679/)  
[update schedule](http://changkihyuks.carrd.co/#schedule)


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